Factually wrong. Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) Unix was the defacto Unix for x86 long before anyone even heard the word Linux in Unix circles. But IBM stole their code, by way of a so-called partnership, and then "open sourced" (gave away) that code to Linux because IBM wanted to sell more hardware.
What made HPC take off? NASA, whose job is to explore space, made an amazing Earth-bound advancement. In the mid-1990s a team of programmers came up with a way to cluster x86-based servers for collective processing power for a cheap alternative to expensive, proprietary HPC systems at the time. Dubbed Beowulf, it was not tied to one particular operating system, any free and open source OS would do. But the inventors used Linux, and that started the momentum.
NASA then gave away this supercomputer building code to China, Russia, and others, for free as well. Those countries did not even have a supercompuer at the time. Now China is at the top. Thank IBM and their embargo-busting weapon Linux.
What part of the Linux code base was founded on code "stolen" from SCO? I recall SCO hired a consultant to compare the open code base of linux with the proprietary code base of SCO, and the consultant found no copying. However SCO concealed this material fact. Also SCO sued Novell and discovered the interesting fact that SCO didn't own UNIX; subsequently Novell issued a waiver to IBM declaring there was no UNIX code in LINUX and the remains of SCO were forced to honor this by court order.
AHA! I see that SCO came back in 2016 but failed again and the most recent lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice! Bummer!
Wow. After all this time, you’re still pushing this crapfest.