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Are we discussing the same thing?Are we discussing the same thing?Posted Apr 7, 2005 20:50 UTC (Thu) by GreyWizard (subscriber, #1026)In reply to: Having it both ways? by bos Parent article: Linus on the BK withdrawal
Each of your examples is problematic. RedHat is not well known for their work on source control products. They do quite a lot of kernel development, and if they have a license it is probably intended to resolve cases like this one. That is hardly a reasonable example of competition. David Miller does not directly contribute to any project that competes with BitKeeper, so his purchase is irrelevant. Meanwhile, I'd rather not argue about this mysterious larger company you'd rather not name. Are we even discussing the same thing? My point is that is that Larry McVoy is zealous about preventing anyone who contributes to a project he considers competitive from using BitKeeper. This is supported by his own statements, such as: He does not say they don't get to use BK "unless they pay for it." Clearly he doesn't want them to use it at all. To the extent the paid license doesn't explicitly enforce this it's either an oversight or a lazy attempt at spin that would be immediately reversed if it ever became relevant. (I'm not sure exactly how this reversal would be implemented, but a simple license change would probably work because customers like you will eventually need updates, support or both. There may even be a clause allowing BitMover to alter the license unilaterally.) I find it unimaginable that McVoy would not take immediate action in response to competition from a customer.
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Are we discussing the same thing? Posted Apr 7, 2005 21:05 UTC (Thu) by bos (subscriber, #6154) [Link] Sure, Red Hat isn't interested in SCM; they still use CVS to do most of their work, for example. The mysterious larger company actively works on SCM, but I doubt there's any overlap between their BK users and their SCM developers.
Certainly, Larry has been pretty vigorous about preventing naked competitors from using BK when he's had foreknowledge.
Are we discussing the same thing? Posted Apr 12, 2005 19:20 UTC (Tue) by zander76 (guest, #6889) [Link] Well, I don't know if I would say that RedHat is not a treat. RedHat is a commercial organization and if at anypoint they saw profit in SCM then they would be in there.
And your point is...? Posted Apr 12, 2005 19:35 UTC (Tue) by GreyWizard (subscriber, #1026) [Link] RedHat does not compete with BitMover today. That they could do so at some point in the future is irrelevant because the same can be said for any company that might consider purchasing BitKeeper. Refusing to sell on this basis would mean refusing to sell at all.
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