New Book Slams Linux, Torvalds

Yahoo News ^ | May, 18 2004 | Jay Wrolstad

[decimon]

A study challenging the origins of Linux states that the open-source software frequently is taken or adapted from material owned by other companies and individuals. It also directly questions Linus Torvalds (news - web sites)' claim to be the inventor of Linux.

The information is contained in a book by Kenneth Brown, president the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. Portions of the book will be released later this week.

Brown conducted a comprehensive study on the source of open-source code, tracing the free-software movement over three decades, including interviews with some two-dozen principal developers of Linux, according to Gregory Fossedal, a Tocqueville senior fellow.

'Derivative Technology'

"Among the conclusions is that there is a high probability that Linux is a derivative work, based on previous operating systems -- including, but not limited to, Unix (news - web sites) and Minux," Fossedal told NewsFactor.

While many open-source programmers respect intellectual property, Brown's study shows that others refer to intellectual-property rights with contempt, ADTI reports.

Unix: Most Stolen?

The invention of Unix is an integral part of the Linux story, Brown suggests. "People's exceptional interest in the Unix operating system made Unix one of the most licensed, imitated, and stolen products in the history of computer science," he states.

"For almost thirty years, programmers have tried to build a Unix-like system and couldn't," Brown says. "To this day, we have a serious attribution problem in software development, because some programmers may have chosen to unscrupulously borrow or imitate Unix."

Excerpts from Brown's book will be published at www.adti.net beginning on Thursday.

[decimon]

I don't give a hoot about this but the OS wars are popular, so...

[dread78645]

B2k and friends here

[PokeyJoe]

Oh, you mean like MS Windows borrowing GUI from Apple, who borrowed it from Geos . . .

[Prime Choice]

http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,52973,00.html

A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that Microsoft provides funding to the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution.

(I am sooooo shocked. Not.)

[unixfox]

Oh, you mean like MS Windows borrowing GUI from Apple, who borrowed it from Geos . . .

Who borrowed it from Xerox PARC . . .

[NJ_gent]

What I find most amusing is how nobody ever bothers trying to go after FreeBSD and other such BSD-based OSs to claim infringement. I suppose it's because numerous Linux vendors have managed to capitalize on Linux, while no one has really made a whole lot of money from BSD - save Apple, which has plenty of lawyers to toss at would-be attackers.

[TheStickman]

If only there were pro-sound apps for either Linux or Free BSD. Sadly, this is not the case.

[NJ_gent]

"> Oh, you mean like MS Windows borrowing GUI from Apple, who borrowed it from Geos . . .
Who borrowed it from Xerox PARC . . ."

AT&T, Bell Labs, MIT, et al are in there somewhere as well.

[mikegi]

Wasn't everything in the personal computer world "borrowed" from Sutherland?

[Little Pig]

If I recall correctly from my "Running Linux" book, Torvalds admitted originally setting out to create a version of Minix that ran on Intel architecture. I'd have to dig out the book to be sure, but if so, then this story should run on the same page as that story about a dog biting some guy.

[Free_at_last_-2001]

Look lets just get one thing straight al gore invented Linux !!!

[antiRepublicrat]

What I find most amusing is how nobody ever bothers trying to go after FreeBSD and other such BSD-based OSs to claim infringement.

Because BSD is protected by a settlement in a case in which it was found that much of UNIX wasn't copyrighted.

[antiRepublicrat]

In his response, Linus admitted that he didn't create Linux, attributing its creation to Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny with him as just a fake front man.

I am not kidding.

[TechJunkYard]

Naw, it was Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

I think the Easter Bunny worked on porting NFS. ;-)

[Petronski]

This one ought to be good for hundreds of square yards of astroturf.

[NJ_gent]

The settlement only went backward, though. It wouldn't cover any claims against anything done within, say, the FreeBSD project.

What I found most amusing about that suit was Berkley's finding of a bunch of BSD code within SysV. That's what forced the settlement more than anything. While there were small parts of BSD which might have illicited a real complaint from AT&T, there was a bunch of code in SysV that violated Berkley's license due to lack of the advertising clause and even misattribution of code. In the end, it would have been a really rough road for AT&T to fight, considering its lack of valid copyrights and its own serious IP violations. The whole thing basically became a wash where both sides released the other from liability for past copyright indiscretions.

[dfwgator]

Further proof that in IT, we don't stand on the shoulders of giants, but rather we stand on each others toes.

[mvpel]

I remember working with Minux in college in 1990 or so. It's a "MINimalist" bare-bones system used in OS architecture coursework. The fact that Linux is a Minux derivitive is well known.

[Question_Assumptions]

I find myself wondering what the automobile market would look like if Ford or other early automakers had gotten 46 year patents on inventions like the steering wheel, hydraulic brakes, windshields, windshield wipers, seat belts, putting an engine inside of a vehicle with four wheels, brake and gas pedals, the clutch, transmissions, electronic turn signals, turn signal levers, brake lights, headlights, lug nuts, radiators, etc. That's what some of the software patents and "look and feel" lawsuits are like. The Constitutional purpose of patents and copyrights are "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts". Used punatively and non-competatively, long-term patents do exactly the opposite.

[cryptical]

The settlement only went backward, though. It wouldn't cover any claims against anything done within, say, the FreeBSD project.

FreeBSD started with BSD 4.4 lite, the non-infringing portion of the source tree. Unless they could prove an infringment going forward, they'd have no claim. The nice thing about the FreeBSD model is the CVS tree is available back to the beginning, with change control info of every line of code. Want to know where something came from? Check the log for the file.