The Washington DC thinktank the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution has published a study that claims that Torvalds is not the real inventor of Linux but that credit and properly also important IP rights belong to Andrew Tannenbaum the creator of the Unix based OS called Minix. The study is reviewed in a CNET article and Tannenbaum himself has rebutted some of the assertions of his role made in the study.

Regardless of whether the claim in the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution study has any merit, it shows that Linux and open source really have moved from the world of idealists to the world of business men. And that means among other things that nothing is sacred any more and that a “sense of community” or people “doing the right thing” cannot be counted on any more. If there are money to be made by making the most outrageuos claims so as SCO in the IBM case, there will always by someone to step and take advantage. Sadly, this means that open source business has to play by the often immoral and ruthless rules of business which among other things means to make sure that everything is covered in ironclad drafted by expensive lawyers.