Linux, the free operating system once seen as a symbol of a computing counterculture, is becoming a mainstream technology and is being forced to behave more like one. A step down that path of maturity came yesterday when Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, announced that software developers making contributions to the operating system would have to sign their work and vouch for its origin. The pledge, called a Developer’s Certificate of Origin, is a response to concerns among corporate users of Linux that procedures for adding new code to the evolving operating system have been too informal and lacking in documentation. Tracing the origin of code, analysts say, is vital to avoiding legal challenges that Linux contains pilfered software. Full Story