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Date:      Tue, 11 Dec 2001 11:21:42 +0000
From:      Dominic Marks <dominic_marks@btinternet.com>
To:        Hiten Pandya <hitmaster2k@yahoo.com>
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: [SUGGESTION] - JFS for FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <E16Dkz5-0006Xd-00@tungsten.btinternet.com>
In-Reply-To: <20011211102645.46795.qmail@web21110.mail.yahoo.com>
References:  <20011211102645.46795.qmail@web21110.mail.yahoo.com>

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On Tuesday 11 December 2001 10:26 am, Hiten Pandya wrote:
> > [... Hiten want's to GPL'ify FreeBSD ...]
>
> hi,
> first of all, i would like to clear of some point
> which
> have been taken wrongly.
>

What mail client do you use? It seems to be playing havoc with your 
line breaks.

> o  My Intentions were never to GPL'ify FreeBSD :-)

Yes, but your plans do involve making FreeBSD contain potentially 
more GPL'ed code than it already does. There are good reasons to keep 
GPL code away from the rest of the source (Legal and emotive).

> o  The reason i started this discussion was because
>    i think JFS/JFS2 would be a nice addition to
>    FreeBSD like the rest of the other filesystems.

While I have nothing against JFS support in any way and I suppose it 
would be a nice addition for some users, what does it really offer 
that is going to be of use to most FreeBSD users? Commercial ones or 
otherwise. From the people I've discussed JFS with they seem to agree 
that its best features are in volume administration (In their 
opinion) - are the management tools part of the GPL'ed code base at 
all? If not I think it would be more useful improving what we already 
have, UFS.

> o  The JFS does _not_ have to be root, and even if
>    people were to download it because it is GPL'ed,
>    the size of the filesystem is only around 1.0MB

Okay, but if people do use it and do want it for their system, 
including as the root filesystem then it is a problem to be resolved. 
Since quite a few of the pre-existing filesystems (UFS, NFS, ISO9660) 
do have ability to work in this manner.

> o  Statistically, not everyone is going to run after
>    IBM's JFS, when there are other similar File
> Systems

Yes, but I hope your not planning to port them all :)

> o  If people did want JFS, they can download it of
>    our website, say http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jfs
>
> o  It can also be a child project, like the JAVA
>    Project.

This is okay but adds complexity from your point of view as well as 
the end user. One of the best things about the BSDs as opposed to 
Linux for example is that in general I do not have to apply any (or 
many) patches to the kernel. 

> o  I think, (personally), that we migh be able to get
>    more Corporates attracted, if we take the step of
>    porting quality (not exactly) GPL'ed technologies
>    for FreeBSD (my personal thoughts)

Corporate investment is like dynamite. It can be a very useful tool 
for getting things done, and it can also blow up in your face.

> o  It is hard to Port AIX or OS/2 based code, but we
>    have to agree that, BSD Users were meant to take
>    that kind of challenges, have taken before
>
> o  The JFS, can just be a bonus addition for FreeBSD,
>    and does not have to be part of the base addition,
>    example: CD-ROMS /DVD or any other releases which
>    prohibit GNU Code.
>
> =====
> -Hiten,
>

Thanks
-- 
Dominic

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