Linux vs. Linux
Mar 21, 2000 — by Rick Lehrbaum — from the LinuxDevices Archive — viewsCharles Babcock, editor of ZDNet's [email protected] Week, has been pondering the potential for Linux to fork . . .
“Reaching such a fork may be inevitable, given the coalition of voluntary efforts that keeps Linux intact and updated. 'Any time you have open source code, you're going to get forking,' predicted Bill Eppifanio, an analyst at J.P. Morgan. 'Forking will be just as bad for Linux as it was for Unix,' he added.”
“Forking, or creating a new, incompatible version, is allowed under the open source programmer's creed, where any coder can do what he or she wants with the source code. But it is the example of the many incompatible versions of Unix that emerged in the '80s that plagues Linux developers, investors and information technology (IT) managers.”
“In the meantime, the stakes have become enormous . . .”
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