SCO is using Linux to run its web site, despite halting its own Linux distribution and taking IBM to court for its use of the open source operating system.

Web services consultancy Netcraft, which runs surveys on web server usage, listed the company as using a combination of Linux and the open source web server Apache for its web site.

Blake Stowell, director of corporate communications at SCO, acknowledged his company's choice of platform.

"We based the running of the site on Linux prior to filing the lawsuit against IBM," he said. "We have been moving the site to Unix, but this takes time."

Stowell said he believed the Linux distribution used was Caldera, SCO's distribution.

Mike Prettejohn, a director at Netcraft, said Linux's market share in the web serving market was significant, but that the market share of SCO Unix was "hard to find".

But he added: "I think we could argue that it's not completely inconsistent of SCO to use Linux if it is claiming intellectual property rights on some of the code."

ben_tudor@vnu.co.uk