As CEO and president of SCO Group, McBride has spent the last few years trying to collect billions in licensing fees from companies using the Linux operating system, earning the wrath of the world's open-source geeks. For scores of programmers, here was a lawyered-up copyright troll trying to shake down Linux -- the free, open-source operating system built by idealistic hackers working for the common good.

But McBride insists he's just misunderstood.

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