The myth is real [LWN.net]

The myth is real

Posted Jun 4, 2005 13:43 UTC (Sat) by fergal (subscriber, #602)
In reply to: The myth is real by felixfix
Parent article: Linux dispute boils over to MySQL, other projects (ComputerWorld)

Posting a rant based on details you can't remember and won't bother researching is hardly productive.

I don't remember the details either because I looked at the license a long time ago. Even back then, those restrictions were there and I don't believe the source was ever available (certainly not for the server). It also had things like posting your changelogs on their servers. I never used it.

(Log in to post comments)

Oh please

Posted Jun 4, 2005 14:26 UTC (Sat) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link]

That was not a rant. You want rants? See Larry McVoy for that. Don't call me on not researching something that you won't research either.

Yes, the licensing, or at least McVoy's interpretation of the license, did change as people kept on doing what had been legal but annoyed McVoy. There are any number of web sites with little stories about how they could not do what they had done before, because McVoy changed things. I am certain google or archives would show this if you cared to search. I won't, because I remember this. You won't, because you don't remember it. Which makes more sense?

And yes the client source was available, for a while. If you think not, you have not been paying attention. McVoy had a nice rant when he withdrew that.

Oh please

Posted Jun 4, 2005 17:46 UTC (Sat) by fergal (subscriber, #602) [Link]

I am certain google or archives would show this if you cared to search. I won't, because I remember this. You won't, because you don't remember in

Right so, I've searched, I can't find any mention of the open source client. I did find a message in my old email:

From: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@valinux.com>
To: bitkeeper-users@bitmover.com
Subject: How does one get the sources to bitkeeper?
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2000 10:01:47 -0700

OK, stupid question.  Suppose I'm paranoid and I want to see the sources
to bitkeeper (the license seems to imply this is possible, since it has
all sorts of words about source distributions, and compliace with the
test suites, etc.)

How do I get access to the bitkeeper sources?  They're not on the
download page.....  is there some other place I have to go to get a hold
of one?  Say, a place where I can get a clone of the repository for
bitkeeper?  :-)

Does that sound to you like the client was open-source in 2000? I also tried to find the source (I think that's why I joined that list) and it wasn't there. What about BitMover announces Open Source Client for BitKeeper from March this year? Does that sound like the client had been open source before? I didn't see any mention of it in the LWN comments.

As Larry's reply to you shows, the license hasn't changed since 2003. Larry's interpretations may have changed but it's the judge's interpretation that really matters.

I'm not trying to defend Larry, but comments based on vague memories of things you weren't really following anyway aren't very helpful.