Show HN: BitKeeper – Enterprise-ready version control, now open-source
The grand irony is that Larry was one of the earliest advocates of open sourcing the operating system at Sun[1] -- and believed that by the time Sun finally  collectively figured it out and made it happen (in 2005), it was a decade or more too late.[2]  So on the one hand, you can view the story of BitKeeper with respect to open source as almost Greek in its tragic scope:  every reason that Larry outlined for &quot;sourceware&quot;[3] for Sun applied just as much to BK as it did to SunOS -- with even the same technologist (Torvalds) leading the open source alternative!  And you can say to BK and Larry now that it&#x27;s &quot;too late&quot;, just as Larry told Sun in 2005, but I also think this represents a forced dichotomy of &quot;winners&quot; and &quot;losers.&quot;  To the contrary, I would like to believe that the ongoing innovation in the illumos communities (SmartOS, OmniOS, etc.) proves that it&#x27;s never too late to open source software -- that open source communities (like cities) can be small yet vibrant, serving a critical role to their constituencies.  In an alternate universe, might we be running BK on SunOS instead of git on Linux?  Sure -- but being able to run an open source BK on an open source illumos is also pretty great; the future of two innovative systems has been assured, even if it took a little longer than everyone might like.<p>So congratulations to Larry and crew -- and damn, were you ever right in 1993! ;)<p>[1] Seriously, read this: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.landley.net&#x2F;history&#x2F;mirror&#x2F;unix&#x2F;srcos.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.landley.net&#x2F;history&#x2F;mirror&#x2F;unix&#x2F;srcos.html</a><p>[2] The citation here is, in that greatest of all academic euphemisms, &quot;Personal communication.&quot;<p>[3] &quot;Sourceware&quot; because [1] predates the term &quot;open source&quot;