If you’re not watching what’s going on between BitKeeper and OSDL, here’s a quick recap:

BitKeeper provides a “Free Linux License” for their version control system which Linus and other major kernel developers have adopted for Linux development. Linus’ employer OSDL employs many contractors working on many different projects. One of their contractors (on his own time - not on a contracted project) decided to create a truly open source version of the BitKeeper client. BitKeeper didn’t like this (for obvious reasons), so they threatened OSDL/Linus/everyone that “unless you convince OSDL’s contractor to stop his efforts on his own project, we’ll stop creating a Linux version of the BitKeeper client”. And now they’ve followed through.

This will obviously create a significant hardship for any OSS project using BitKeeper’s technology. (the Linux Kernel being the most prominent)

Now I feel that BitKeeper has the 100% right to control how they give/sell/whatever their own closed source products. We’ve got no course telling them what their business process should be. But this highlights EXACTLY why proprietary software is a significant business risk, even if it is completely free. If another company can rip out the rug from underneath you at any time for any reason, and you don’t have access and control of the products you depend on… You’re asking for trouble. And it Linus is powerless to stop it - there is little chance any of us have.

This is why software freedom matters. This is why I do everything I can to avoid non-OSS software. And this is *exactly* why I encourage others to do the same.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 6th, 2005 at 11:22 pm and is filed under programming, open source, political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.