[x-posted]
Amidst controversy over work done by Samba developer Andrew Tridgell, Linux is (about time) moving out of Bitkeeper (http://os.newsforge.com/os/05/04/11/118211.shtml?tid=2&tid=25&tid=3), and looking for a new SCM. The short story is this. Background: For some time, Linux has been using the controversial Bitkeeper SCM tool for managing its source code. This was a completely closed source product, which was trying to bypass FLOSS arguments by offering a free hosted solution. For all this while, the proprietary Bitkeeper hosting the source code of the most popular FLOSS operating system - Linux, has been the biggest ironies of our times. This was made possible till now because Linus Torvalds has a very different take on FLOSS related philosophies than most people. The controversy: Andrew Tridgell of Samba fame started reverse engineering the proprietary Bitkeeper protocol and started working on a free Open source tools which could work with the Linux source code running on the Bitkeeper hosted repositories. Larry Mc Voy, the Bitkeeper honcho took an exception to this and complained to Linus. Linux tried to talk to both Larry and Andrew, and failing a resolution decided to move Linux elsewhere. Read the article for Larry and Linusâ take on the matter. I just cant help shouting out at Larry, as to how he expected this story to end otherwise? Open source movement came about to stop monopolizing of essential computing from the common man. Why is it ok to reverse- engineer the Windows SMB/CIFS protocol and make Samba, or to reverse engineer Microsoft Office file formats and make OpenOffice, and at the same time it is not ok to reverse engineer Bitkeeper? Why did Bitkeeper have to go through the exercise of giving free hosting to Linux (a publicity gimmick gone bad), making it so indispensable to the world that a reverse-engineered tool was inevitable? This only shows how clueless the Bitkeeper management has been about what it is getting into. I for one am thankful that such a gross philosophical crime (using Linux over Bitkeeper) is coming to an end. If Linux places his faith on an Open source SCM now - Subversion or GNU Arch, it is only going to make these software better. Also, one again, students and enthusiasts can start using free tools for accessing the source of a free OS. - Sandip -- Sandip Bhattacharya * Puroga Technologies * [EMAIL PROTECTED] Work: http://www.puroga.com * Home/Blog: http://www.sandipb.net/blog PGP/GPG Signature: 51A4 6C57 4BC6 8C82 6A65 AE78 B1A1 2280 A129 0FF3 _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- [email protected] http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
