Linus codes up a patch manager

Posted Apr 11, 2005 11:12 UTC (Mon) by hppnq (guest, #14462)
In reply to: Linus codes up a patch manager by BrucePerens
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.

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.