The kernel and BitKeeper part ways

The kernel and BitKeeper part ways

Posted Apr 7, 2005 5:06 UTC (Thu) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330)
Parent article: The kernel and BitKeeper part ways

Oh, please. If Larry hadn't gotten the Linux kernel developers, or some other high-profile project, to use his product he would not have a company. Growing a business is tough, and he chose an excellent strategy to do it. There was no charity involved, though he might have felt that way sometimes.

Of course Linux benefitted; after all, Larry basically designed the thing according to Linus's specifications (as well as his own very good ideas). But in the early days, Larry needed Linus; now he doesn't need Linus anymore, so ta ta.

Of course any good ideas in BitKeeper that aren't patented will be cloned. And no, that isn't a social problem, and no, it isn't unique to open source; proprietary competitors will also seek the best ideas that they can use.

And there's a lesson: if you depend on a proprietary tool, you'd better have a contract in place that guarantees that the tool is around as long as you need it, or else have a contingency plan for dealing with your pain when your supplier withdraws the tool from the market.

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