The Torvalds Transcript (InformationWeek)

Posted Mar 25, 2007 4:33 UTC (Sun) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: The Torvalds Transcript (InformationWeek) by malor
Parent article: The Torvalds Transcript (InformationWeek)

if he had refused to use bitkeeper at all then kernel development would have ground to a halt as Linus overloaded, and people would not have had the experiance with distributed SCM tools to be able to create git or it's equivalent.

if the opensource SCM systems weren't up to the job of being able to handle the kernel after several years of bitkeeper being an example, what makes you think that any of them would have been suitable for it back then?

as far as I can tell, other then git, there is still no opensource SCM that can handle the scale and distribted workflow of the kernel development.

yes bitkeeper was a gamble, but the options at the time were gambles as well (what decision isn't a gamble for that matter). Yes, if Larry McVoy had been an evil person out to scramble the kernel development process things could hve turned out worse then they did

remember that even stallman says that you are justified in useing a closed source tool if there are no opensource options.