Desire for freedom is practical self-interest

Desire for freedom is practical self-interest

> I feel that [Linus] cast aside any thoughts on ideology

I don't see where ideology comes into it. Linus cast aside freedom from vendor control. That's a blunder.

> and chose to use [BitKeeper] because it was the best tool for the job,

Despite the fact that, now that his requirements are understood better, a tool to keep the workflow going has been written within mere days and is being improved rapidly.

> despite the criticisms of others who felt that introducing closed-source
> software into such a critical role was dangerous to the health of
> kernel development.

The kernel project change history -- Linus's main reason for using the tool -- is held in a database that the vendor claims ownership of. That's the type of outcome easily predicted, and actively warned against, at the time Linus chose to abandon practical software freedoms.

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