Linus codes up a patch manager [LWN.net]

Linus codes up a patch manager

Posted Apr 11, 2005 20:55 UTC (Mon) by brouhaha (subscriber, #1698)
In reply to: Linus codes up a patch manager by Wol
Parent article: Linus codes up a patch manager

BitKeeper was written in order to help Linus.

That's not even close to being true. Bitkeeper existed as commercial software years before Linus was even willing to consider using SCM software. What happened was that once Linus explained his reasons for not liking SCM, Larry offered to enhance Bitkeeper to do what Linus said he needed (mostly "lines of development", but a few other things too. The "free" Bitkeeper license was added to support Linux development and encourage use by other open source projects.

The Bitkeeper free license problems have caused problems for many people before this latest snafu. A friend at a company that is heavily into Linux was using Bitkeeper fully in compliance with the "free" license -- they had multiple developers, but all their commit logs were going to the open logging server, just as required. Larry decided that they were violating the "spirit" of the license by using it to work on software they sold (even though that software was in fact open soure), and demanded a big pile of money from them. They tried to negotiate, but Bitmover came to the negotiating table unwilling to compromise on the fee at all, so the company dropped Bitkeeper like a hot potato.

I think it makes perfect sense for Bitmover to focus only on commercial business, and drop the "free" license, and for Linux to stop using it. At least Larry and Linus seem to still mostly be on good terms, so that Larry is allowing for a transition period rather than yanking the carpet out from under everyone.

In the long run, this will actually be good for the free software community, because it will result in the development of free alternatives. It will probably take a long time for the free alternatives to catch up to the capabilities of Bitkeeper, but as long as there was the "free" Bitkeeper license, progress on free alternatives was very slow.

Eric

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