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RMS Calls On Linux Developers To Replace BitKeeper
JakusMinimus writes "The developer of BitKeeper has issued fighting words to RMS and he has responded on the LKML,. I remember the flap about this way back when Linus decided on BitKeeper, now it seems many of the non-free concerns were warranted."
Your questions indicate one of two things: you either have a burning desire to work on BK itself or a burning desire to copy BK. If it's the former, that's easy, send us a resume and if you are a good engineer we'll hire you, we need good engineers with a solid understanding of file systems, distributed systems, graphs and sets, and/or human interfaces.
If you are trying to copy BK, give it up. We'll simply follow in the footsteps of every other company faced with this sort of thing and change the protocol every 6 months. Since you would be chasing us you can never catch up. If you managed to stay close then we'd put digital signatures into the protocol to prevent your clone from interoperating with BK.
The guy is totally in his rights, and RMS is trying to manipulate the text, or at least it seems that way if the person reading his message hadn't read the previous post.
1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
While it's true that linux depends on GNU, it's also true that GNU depends on Linux. Linux is "just" a kernel, but it's the most important part (besides the compiler). It's obviously burning up RMS that GNU depends on something which isn't GNU.
It also has to be frustrating when your baby, TURD (oops, HURD), is a wallflower to the darling Linux.
I think those people that hate bitkeeper, or make sure you GNUter Linux would be more productive if they worked on HURD instead. The acceptance of Darwin shows that people are interested in microkernels and alternative to alternative OSs.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
EMACS is based off of TMACS which was written by Guy Steele.
EMACS is not original.
I still pay to get a proper compiler (Sun's C/C++ and Fortran, not some underperforming dog like GCC), an operating system (Solaris) and real manuals (not some utterily unsable info-shit).
BOO! TERRO
That said, a proprietary tool can never be the best for the job if the author/copyright holder is a complete dick. If it was known that the author of BitKeeper was a dick before Linus started using it, then the tool should not have been introduced; regardless, it is clear now that the guy IS a dick, and therefore RMS is absolutely correct in urging the kernel developers to play chicken and either force BK to play nicely with others or shoot the moon and wind up losing its free advertising.
Here's the match to light my karma on fire:
Linus is a dick.
He has few people skills, and comes off nearly as charming as BillG when talking to non-geeks. Linus isn't trained, and doesn't know how to deal with regular human beings. So, he seems like a dick. OTOH, this gives him the freedom to have developed a complete meritocracy. Sure, it ruffles feathers, but most things fall by the wayside when quality rises to the fore.
Similarly, the BK guy is also a dick. His code does what it wants, under his rules. But it's a damned good tool for the job. If it weren't, Linus would be using subversion or CVS.
Finally, RMS is a dick. The problem is that his position is primarily political, not technical. In that realm, you *must not* be a dick. All he'll succeed in doing is bringing out lots of dickish behavior. Perhaps some dick with skillz will code a better replacement. Then, likely, Linus will use it. Until then, merit wins.
In closing:
Larry McVoy is a dick.
Linus is a dick.
RMS is a dick.
I'm probably a dick.
michael is a dick (you are what you eat. Oh, and here comes the pro-michael toads to burn some precious, precious karma:)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Go there and read all of the thread. He just went in there cause a stink with no damned good reason for it.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty