BitKeeper and Linux II
April 16, 2005 3 Comments
This seems to be getting uglier and uglier. I've still not had the amount of time needed to properly sort out all the info here, but I'm a bit surprised the fallout has been this bad. There is a real danger of the community becoming fractured and polarized here…we need to avoid that. Tridge did what he does (and is damn good at) and it's hard to believe that his intentions were bad or that he was doing something with malice. At the same time, Linus has always been of the opinion that commercial products, even closed source ones, are not inherently evil and that using them, if they are clearly the best, is fine. This annoyed a lot of people, but at the end of the day Linux is still Linus project whether you agree with him or not. You can read more about how Linus feel on the subject, which he calls the real difference between “Open Source” and “Free Software” here. At any rate, what's done is done and we need to get this sorted and put behind us. Linus is writing git for SCM and both sides are clearly a bit agitated here. I for one will continue to watch this *extremely* closely as the impact could be so far reaching.
–jeremy
Jeremy's Blog 
I wonder how this will work out. Since Linus has used Larry's product so intensely, do you suppose that he can engineer git so that it won't infringe on what Larry's company wrote, making Linus the same guy that he condemned…
Its certainly troubling. This really should be the year for linux before Longhorn hits the shelves. This is prime time to be grabbing more OS market share but it doesnt seem to be happening. Hopefully tridge and linus can indeed just say “Aww, what the hell, lets crack on with it” and sort out a decent OSS management system.
Also, I thought I recalled hearing that there was a type of non-compete in the license (ie. if you use BK you can't work on a competing SCM for x amount of time), but I can't seem to find that now. I doubt that would be used here for a variety of reasons thought – 1) I don't even think it's a legal clause (which could explain why it's no longer there). 2) The damage done to BK in this case would outweigh any possible benefit. 3) Linus and Larry seem to have an existing relationship that would likely allow for negotiations.
–jeremy