KEEPING THE CODE
KEEPING THE CODE
Dear Linux Magazine Reader,
If you were tuned to the blogs recently, you may have noticed the immortals of open source throwing lightening bolts at each other in a very public feud. Of course, everyone
suspected something was brewing when BitMover CEO Larry McVoy suddenly revoked the special arrangement he’d made to provide BitKeeper code management software for the Linux developers. I won’t launch into a long play by play, but suffice it to say, not long after the announcement, it emerged that Samba author Andrew Tridgell had developed an open BitKeeper-compatible client. This may seem entirely routine. Isn’t that what people like Andrew Tridgell do – build open source tools that challenge the power and privilege of commercial systems? But the story was a bit more complicated. And the swift response from Linus was even more complicated.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Valve Announces Pending Release of Steam Machine
Shout it to the heavens: the Steam Machine, powered by Linux, is set to arrive in 2026.
-
Happy Birthday, ADMIN Magazine!
ADMIN is celebrating its 15th anniversary with issue #90.
-
Another Linux Malware Discovered
Russian hackers use Hyper-V to hide malware within Linux virtual machines.
-
TUXEDO Computers Announces a New InfinityBook
TUXEDO Computers is at it again with a new InfinityBook that will meet your professional and gaming needs.
-
SUSE Dives into the Agentic AI Pool
SUSE becomes the first open source company to adopt agentic AI with SUSE Enterprise Linux 16.
-
Linux Now Runs Most Windows Games
The latest data shows that nearly 90 percent of Windows games can be played on Linux.
-
Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.
-
KDE Unleashes Plasma 6.5
The Plasma 6.5 desktop environment is now available with new features, improvements, and the usual bug fixes.
-
Xubuntu Site Possibly Hacked
It appears that the Xubuntu site was hacked and briefly served up a malicious ZIP file from its download page.
-
LMDE 7 Now Available
Linux Mint Debian Edition, version 7, has been officially released and is based on upstream Debian.

