New BK License Problem?
Quoted 4 lines · Larry McVoy
If there were some way to say "it's only a problem if you or someone you work with develops..." and make that stick, that would be OK. We don't know how to do that. I'm open to suggestions, it would be good to not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Could you clarify exactly why it is a problem that someone both uses BitKeeper and works on potentially-competing SCM systems, if the two activities are unrelated? I can understand that you would not want someone using BK for free on a project that is itself competitive with BK (because that would amount to using your own product against you), but I don't quite see why it is a problem if someone uses BK only for, say, Linux kernel work, and also separately works on some other SCM system such as Subversion or Arch. Is it that you think that direct experience with BK will give someone insight into its pluses and minuses beyond what they could get from just reading about it, thereby indirectly making their competing product better? Or is it some other reason?
Craig
Quoted 3 lines
Could you clarify exactly why it is a problem that someone both uses BitKeeper and works on potentially-competing SCM systems, if the two activities are unrelated?
...
Quoted 4 lines
Is it that you think that direct
experience with BK will give someone insight into its pluses and minuses beyond what they could get from just reading about it, thereby indirectly making their competing product better?
That's it. BK is fairly subtle, it takes a while to wrap your brain around it. The way it works is hard to see from the outside and it is hard to see the value. So blind copying is more likely to copy the wrong parts. On the other hand, if I'm using BK every day and then working on a clone, it's very easy to "do some unrelated work" to see how BK works.
Signature · 2 lines
--- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm
Quoted 9 lines · Larry McVoy
Quoted 3 lines
Could you clarify exactly why it is a problem that someone both uses BitKeeper and works on potentially-competing SCM systems, if the two activities are unrelated?
...
Quoted 4 lines
Is it that you think that direct
experience with BK will give someone insight into its pluses and minuses beyond what they could get from just reading about it, thereby indirectly making their competing product better?
Quoted 5 lines
That's it. BK is fairly subtle, it takes a while to wrap your brain around it. The way it works is hard to see from the outside and it is hard to see the value. So blind copying is more likely to copy the wrong parts. On the other hand, if I'm using BK every day and then working on a clone, it's very easy to "do some unrelated work" to see how BK works.
Q: Does the paid license also prohibit usage by people whose companies work on other source-management systems? In that case, well, if they need to get used with BK to evaluate it's strong points, then they will.
Signature · 2 lines
Vojtech Pavlik SuSE Labs
Quoted 16 lines · Vojtech Pavlik
Quoted 9 lines · Larry McVoy
Quoted 3 lines
Could you clarify exactly why it is a problem that someone both uses BitKeeper and works on potentially-competing SCM systems, if the two activities are unrelated?
...
Quoted 4 lines
Is it that you think that direct
experience with BK will give someone insight into its pluses and minuses beyond what they could get from just reading about it, thereby indirectly making their competing product better?Quoted 5 lines
That's it. BK is fairly subtle, it takes a while to wrap your brain around it. The way it works is hard to see from the outside and it is hard to see the value. So blind copying is more likely to copy the wrong parts. On the other hand, if I'm using BK every day and then working on a clone, it's very easy to "do some unrelated work" to see how BK works.
Quoted 3 lines
Q: Does the paid license also prohibit usage by people whose companies work on other source-management systems? In that case, well, if they need to get used with BK to evaluate it's strong points, then they will.
Well they'll even use the free version, use it for a dummy project with some anonymous email address for the open logging requirement, and won't tell anyone about it. We need to be realistic here this is common practice in the industry even if no one will admit it.
Maybe we should add an additional restriction to the Linux kernel license saying that Microsoft has no right to use Linux since they're making a competitor product. Let's see if that changes anything.
Nicolas