Code concerns spark attack on Linux for being subversive

It was a case of deja vu last week when the open source software movement was accused of being some kind of communist plot to overthrow America.

The accuser was Dan O'Dowd, chief executive of Green Hills Software, a firm whose embedded operating system happens to be threatened by Linux.

'Every day new code is added to Linux in Russia, China and elsewhere throughout the world. Every day that code is incorporated into our command, control, communications and weapons systems. This must stop,' Mr O'Dowd said in a press release last week.

The release noted that two of the biggest embedded Linux firms - LynuxWorks and MontaVista Software - had development centres in the Cold War capitals of Beijing and Moscow.

This is not the first time Linux has been described as a foreign pinko conspiracy. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer once famously described Linux as having 'the characteristics of communism'.

Comparing Linux to a dangerous, subversive and legally questionable Trojan Horse, Mr O'Dowd dug out a 20-year-old misquote from Unix author Ken Thompson: 'You can't trust code that you did not create yourself. No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code.'

Mr Thompson's actual quote was: 'You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself. (Especially code from companies that employ people like me.) No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code.'