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Linus codes up a patch managerLinus codes up a patch managerPosted Apr 11, 2005 10:15 UTC (Mon) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510)In reply to: Linus codes up a patch manager by Wol Parent article: Linus codes up a patch manager Although some consideration of Linus' task was probably part of the design, Larry would not have coded Bitkeeper to "help Linus". As far as I could tell it's been intended as a commercial product from day one. And it's not at all clear to me that the people working on the other half-dozen Open Source programs that attempt to do the same thing are either super-PhDs or are leveraging off of the work of Bitkeeper. Even Tridge was only looking at Bitkeeper to be compatible with its over-wire protocol rather than to handle revisions as it does. I have met some of them, and they're smart, but no smarter than other folks who don't seem to have a problem working in Open Source. Finally, if software patents were employed in this space, they would probably be employed by Larry's former employer, for whom he worked on the same problem, against Larry. Bruce
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Linus codes up a patch manager Posted Apr 11, 2005 11:12 UTC (Mon) by hppnq (subscriber, #14462) [Link] Although some consideration of Linus' task was probably part of the design, Larry would not have coded Bitkeeper to "help Linus". As far as I could tell it's been intended as a commercial product from day one. These things -- creating a commercial product and helping Linus -- have little or nothing to do with one another, and this has been mulled over a gazillion times. Bruce, as an Open Source leader you have a responsibility. People expect solid reasoning from you, not vague hearsay and accusations that are not at all backed by facts or at least a complete picture. So I kindly request that you share with us the information you have regarding Larry's motivations for writing BitKeeper. If you don't have that information, you would do well to at least pay Larry *and* Linus the courtesy of respecting *their* story, since they are likely to be a bit better informed than you are. If your hands are legally or otherwise tied, that will do too for an explanation. By the way, I intend to keep telling you this -- it's not the first time -- until you do me the small favour of returning a sane response. Before you jump to conclusions: this is not a hobby of mine and I have no agenda other than the proliferation of Free Software.
Linus codes up a patch manager Posted Apr 11, 2005 14:41 UTC (Mon) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link] Bruce, do you have a PhD? Are you aware of what sort of person gets a PhD?
I'm probably PhD quality, though I doubt I'd survive the course. I know I'm extremely bright. And from my contacts with several OS developers like Tridge (although not him in particular) I know that they're in the same class as me, if not better! (The main difference between me and them is they're probably a damn sight more meticulous.)
Oh - and I'm a Brit. I gather Americans consider our basic Batchelor to be the equivalent of their own Masters, although probably less so nowadays now that the degree system has been so thoroughly dumbed down. That was certainly the case though when I got my BA!
Either way, when Larry says he's got PhD class and better brains *struggling* to solve his problems, I find it only too easy to believe him. And those brains don't come cheap!
And when he says that the resulting work is simple to reverse-engineer, that again I find that only too believable - in my field (Chemistry) I was taught High-School chemistry at a level higher than what the PhDs were researching when my teacher was at Uni. Once the problem has been understood for the first time, it's easy to understand again. It's the first time that's the problem.
Cheers,
Linus codes up a patch manager Posted Apr 11, 2005 15:14 UTC (Mon) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link] I am not a PhD, but am recognized as a senior research scientist by a major university, which usually comes after being a PhD. I have also worked with many PhDs, between Pixar and my years at Pixar's predecessor. But unlike them, my expertise is not mathematics.Remember, we are discussing a text-handling problem, not superstring theory. And there is a great deal of applicable published work. This is not to say that problems aren't difficult to solve. It no doubt takes a lot of sweat to solve them. But perhaps not an advanced degree. I don't know what Tom Lord's education is, but I've found his work on this problem to be very creative. Bruce
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