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Story: BitKeeper: No holds barred open source infighting

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Many people only read the first page, or even the first paragraph or two of an article, and this article gives a very anti-Tridge slant from the beginning. Comments supporting what he did don't appear until page two.

On the first page, the reporter says "Some free software advocates argue that proprietary applications should not be used, on principle, in the development of free and open source software." I believe this is not the general feeling of free/open source developers. Rather it is closer to "Some free software advocates argue that using proprietary applications leaves you vunerable to the company changing licenses or abandonding the development of that application, leaving devoplers in a lurch."

Also on the first page, the reporter stats as fact that "The resulting clone would violate BitMover's intellectual property". I do not believe this is true at all. This clam may have been made by Larry McVoy, but it is just a claim, not a fact as the reporter has stated.

On subsequent pages, the report gives a lot of quotes from one "Gary Barnett", from "Ovum", a person and company that I have never heard of. Going to ovum.com, I find that their website returns the error "An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact onlineadmin@ovum.com.". I guess it is possible that ovum has simply ensured that non-microsoft browsers can't access his website. Either way, this does not speak well of Gary's technical knowledge or independance.

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