IBM gives SCO its Unix source code
IBM has complied with a January court order to share the source code underlying its two versions of Unix, AIX and Dynix, with its legal foe, the SCO Group. SCO's lawsuit accuses IBM of breaching its Unix license by transferring technology from proprietary Unix to open-source Linux, a claim IBM denies.
IBM confirmed in a Tuesday court filing that it released the code to SCO on March 18. More interesting than the source code release itself is IBM's description of how difficult it was to assemble all versions of both operating systems along with design documents and other material.
"Complying with the court's order involved more than 4,700 hours of work from more than 400 IBM employees. This does not include the time spent by IBM's counsel and consultants on this project, which was likewise considerable," IBM said. Big Blue gave SCO a server to scrutinize the 80GB information, but SCO still likely will have its hands full if it wants to read everything; IBM also scanned 900,000 pages of paper into electronic files on CD-ROM.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
