BUSINESS
Linux developers must 'sign their work'
25-05-2004
by
Developers who want to be part of the Linux development process will now have to provide more background on code they have submitted.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system, on Monday announced the launch of the Linux Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO), a new system that tracks contributions to the OS as well as the contributors themselves. Torvalds, and his associates at the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), said the new process would "improve the accurate tracking of contributions to the kernel and ensure developers receive credit for their contributions."
Linux has so far been developed by a loose association of people around the world who have individually written parts of the software's 5.7 million lines of code, typically without direct compensation. Linux advocates say this approach -- called open source -- makes for better software since the final product is the work of countless expert-volunteers.
"This process improvement makes Linux even stronger," said Linus Torvalds. "We've always had transparency, peer review, pride and personal responsibility behind our open source development method. With the DCO, we're trying to document the process. We want to make it simpler to link submitted code to its contributors. It's like signing your own work."
The OSDL's move has however been seen as a reaction to the on-going lawsuits from the SCO group, which claims that its proprietary Unix source code was used in the latest incarnation of Linux -- without SCO's permission. This assertion has resulted in suits against IBM, Novell and other major Linux distributors, as well as against several enterprises that use Linux to run IT systems.
The new DCO has also been seen as a sign of Linux's emergence from its grassroots infancy, where it was often only developers themselves and technophiles of the highest order that used and relied on the free operating system. Novell, HP and Red Hat have all recently sought to move Linux on to desktops, which has also been viewed as a broadening of the boundaries of the operating system.
Still, recent reports from several analysts have noted that Linux still has a mountain to climb -- both in terms of technological development and user perception -- in order to become a meaningful competitor for Microsoft and its Windows operating system.
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