Linus Torvalds offered an explanation to the lkml of the recent decision to switch away from using BitKeeper to manage the Linux kernel [story]. He began, "as a number of people are already aware (and in some cases have been aware over the last several weeks), we've been trying to work out a conflict over BK usage over the last month or two (and it feels like longer ;). That hasn't been working out, and as a result, the kernel team is looking at alternatives." He continued on to thank Larry and BitMover for their efforts in trying to make things work. He added, "NOTE! BitKeeper isn't going away per se. Right now, the only real thing that has happened is that I've decided to not use BK mainly because I need to figure out the alternatives, and rather than continuing "things as normal", I decided to bite the bullet and just see what life without BK looks like. So far it's a gray and bleak world ;)"

Citing the fact that his three years of BitKeeper usage have helped him to improve how he works on the kernel, he added, "so I just wanted to say that I'm personally very happy with BK, and with Larry. It didn't work out, but it sure as hell made a big difference to kernel development. And we'll work out the temporary problem of having to figure out a set of tools to allow us to continue to do the things that BK allowed us to do." As for what tool was likely to replace BitKeeper, Linus offered, "don't bother telling me about subversion. If you must, start reading up on 'monotone'. That seems to be the most viable alternative, but don't pester the developers so much that they don't get any work done. They are already aware of my problems ;)"

BitKeeper was first utilized by a Linux project in December of 1999, when it was employed by the Linux PowerPC project. Then in February of 2002, Linux creator Linus Torvalds decided that BitKeeper was "the best tool for the job" and started using it to manage the mainline kernel, an event that received much attention in the free and open source communities [story], and beyond. BitMover, the company behind BitKeeper, was founded by its current CEO, Larry McVoy [interview], who originally conceived of BitKeeper as a tool to keep Linus from getting burnt out by the growing task of managing the Linux Kernel. Since Linus began using the tool three years ago, the pace of Linux kernel development has doubled [story].

There are two definitions for the word "free" that are commonly used to describe software. The first is "Free as in Freedom", and the other is "Free as in Free Beer". BitKeeper was made available freely under the latter definition, allowing free and open source software developers to use the tool without having to pay any money. It was provided under the agreement that anyone actively using the free tool would not develop a competing product at the same time. In other words, the aim was to provide a tool that could be freely used, but not freely cloned. At the same time, a more advanced version of BitKeeper has been sold commercially, and both products remain the intellectual property of BitMover.

A vocal group has long protested Linus' use of BitKeeper, considering Linux the free and open source flagship product. GNU Project founder Richard Stallman [interview] is among the protestors, harshly criticizing Linus' decision to use a non-free (as in freedom) tool [story]. However, most acknowledge that no free tool currently exists that is as powerful as BitKeeper, offering the ability to perform truly distributed development. Attempts to reverse engineer some of BitKeeper's features have lead to repeated cautions by BitMover. Most recently two such reverse engineering attempts have contributed to BitMover's decision to end the development and availability of the free BitKeeper product.

Three years after Linux creator Linus Torvalds began using BitKeeper to manage the Linux kernel source tree, debates have continued to spring up on the Linux kernel mailing list [story]. A BitKeeper press release from nearly a year ago claims that the move has resulted in doubling the pace of Linux kernel development, a claim examined in a later two part interview on NewsForge from last May, including comments from Linus and Larry McVoy [interview]. In spite of this significant boost in productivity, there remains a group who vehemently oppose Linus' choice to use BitKeeper.

In a recent thread, Larry noted that the version of BitKeeper in use by Linux kernel developers uses an unsigned short to count changesets, and that in about 100 days the number of changesets in the Linux kernel source tree will grow too large to fit in this variable. A new version of BK will soon be released to allow developers to continue to work even after this 64 thousand changeset boundary is reached. While explaining this, Larry also noted that there was a plan to update the BK license to provide a more precise definition of what is and what is not allowed. Specifically, as is, the license requires that you agree to not work on another SCM product if you use or have used the free BK product. Larry explains, "we've had some people who have indicated that they believed that if they used BK they were agreeing that they would never work on another SCM system. We can see how it is possible that people would interpret the license that way but that wasn't our intent. What we would like to do is change the language to say that if you use BK you are agreeing that you won't work on another SCM for 1 year after you stop using BK. But after that you would be able to hack on anything that you wanted."

Larry went on to note that the reason for this clause is to prevent people from using the free BK product, then to stop using it to work on a competing product, then to go back and use the free BK product again gathering more ideas, then to stop using it to further work on the competing product, and so on. For anyone unwilling to use BK due to its licensing, there are numerous alternative methods for obtaining up-to-date snapshots of the Linux kernel, and Linus continues to accept plain text patch files from non-BK users.

Pavel Machek recently announced a new project on the lkml called BitBucket. This project aims to provide read only access (at least for now) to a BitKeeper repository.

There have been numerous flame wars and discussions on the lkml regarding the use of BitKeeper in Linux kernel development [story] [story] [story] [story] [story]. During one of these earlier wars, Linux creator Linus Torvalds explained his position, "Would I prefer to use a tool that didn't have any restrictions on it for kernel maintenance? Yes. But since no such tool exists, and since I'm personally not very interested in writing one, _and_ since I don't have any hangups about using the right tool for the job, I use BitKeeper."

BitKeeper is a source management tool provided under any of three licenses, one of which - the BKL - can make BitKeeper available for free (as in free beer). Tom Gall posted a question to the lkml when he noticed a clause in the BKL intended to prevent an individual or organization from using BitKeeper under this free license if they or their employer develops, produces, sells or resells a competing product. Yet another lengthy discussion followed.

Some contributers to this discussion seem to overlook two simple facts: First, that BitKeeper is also available under commercial (non-free) licensing, and second, that BitKeeper is and always has been primarily a commercial product (hence the sarcastic title of this article). Granted, the wording of any legal verbiage is open to interpretation, but as BitMover founder Larry McVoy [interview] has publicly interpreted this clause as "if you make or sell a competing product, you don't get to use ours for free", there seems little risk it can be used to attain other ends. In any case, for now Linus and many other Linux kernel developers have chosen to utilize BitKeeper in their efforts, and it is still possible to view the latest code (within 3 hours) without using BitKeeper via archives such as this one set up by Rik van Riel [interview].

That said, there are many interesting points raised during this discussion. Read on for the full thread...

Update (October 6 @ 9am EST): Hourly snapshots of the latest 2.5 development tree can also be found here on ftp.kernel.org. Linus sarcastically summarized complaints, "Big boo-hoo, bitkeeper is evil, and Linus doesn't manually do any more what BK plus a few scripts does better for us automatically."

Earlier this year, Linus agreed to test out BitKeeper, Larry McVoy's source management tool. Its non-open-source licensing has lead to a fury of protest and discussion.

James Simmons announced innocently enough on the lkml, "Just to let you know I created a bitkeeper repository for the framebuffer layer." M. R. Brown replied a couple hours later, "Please tell us that primary framebuffer/input/console development will continue in the CVS drop-in tree on SourceForge? "