-... +OpenBSD was only a few months old when +we realized that read-only repository access +for everyone was a critical concept. +
+Previously, open source projects would make +occasional releases accompanied by tarballs of +final source files and Changelogs files, but would +not expose the step-by-step changes of the +development process. Unwittingly all open source +projects were operating with a walled garden +approach. +
+Chuck Cranor and I worked on the anoncvs feature, and +Bob Beck soon became involved in moving the anoncvs +mirror off my overloaded ISDN network to the +University of Alberta, thereby increasing our capacity +to deliver. Nowadays there are many anoncvs mirrors. +
+The introduction of anoncvs meant people without commit +access could read the commit logs, as well as each +committed diff. They could reason about the past as +they proposed new changes. +
+Anoncvs had an immediate impact expanding our development +group. We were inundated with high quality diffs. These +outsider developers wrote excellent changes because they had +sufficient context to reason upon. Those who overwhelmed us +with good changes became developers with commit access. We +were forced to hand out commit accounts like candy. +
+Some people said we would never last. Their cynicism +could almost be thanked for the increase in openness +we embraced, and then our openness probably led others +to embrace it also. +
+I had a Type-4 keyboard,
+Bought with my Sun workstation,
+Hacked on it 'til my fingers bled.
+Was the winter of '95.
+Me and the guys from core,
+Had a source tree with lots of history.
+Chris and Charles held a little coup,
+I should have known I'd lose my history.
+
+Oh, when I look back now,
+I can see we all have nothing
+When it all can be... +when it can be taken away.
+Everyone needs to know their history.
+It was the winter of '95
+
+So we carried on with a fresh source tree,
+Spent all of our hours coding,
+Making changes in our private history,
+Repeating the error of the past, yeah.
+
+The source tree just got too big,
+Too many diffs, too unreliable,
+Too few people had any access;
+Got to open it up now and forever
+Everyone needs to see the history.
+
+Sometimes when I look for something
+Reading ancient tarballs with despair
+I wonder what they were thinking.
+
+And now the times have changed
+Repos on the web, git,
+now githubs everywhere.
+not like the winter of '95
+
+Back around that Halloween,
+Microsoft said open source would never last,
+But now they use the repo tools,
+In the same open access way.
+
+Everyone needs to see the history.
+
+
