Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 14:50:17 +0300 From: Peter Pentchev <roam@orbitel.bg> To: Jeroen Massar <jeroen@unfix.org> Cc: 'Jordan Hubbard' <jkh@osd.bsdi.com>, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Query: How to tell if Microsoft is using BSD TCP/IP code? Message-ID: <20010617145017.B731@ringworld.oblivion.bg> In-Reply-To: <001501c0f71e$f00f7bc0$420d640a@HELL>; from jeroen@unfix.org on Sun, Jun 17, 2001 at 01:16:20PM %2B0200 References: <20010615135713Y.jkh@osd.bsdi.com> <001501c0f71e$f00f7bc0$420d640a@HELL>
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On Sun, Jun 17, 2001 at 01:16:20PM +0200, Jeroen Massar wrote:
> Jordan Hubbard <jkh@osd.bsdi.com> wrote:
> > I've had several marketing types approach me recently for details as
> > to whether or not Microsoft was using the BSD TCP/IP stack and/or user
> > utilities, and though it's always been "common knowledge" in the
> > community that they were, when I set about to "prove" it I found it to
> > be less easy than I'd thought. I've strings'd various binaries and
> > DLLs in my copy of Windows 98 but have yet to find anything resembling
> > proof. Does anyone out there have any details or discovery techniques
> > for confirming or disproving this assertion either way? It would be
> > very useful (for us) from a PR standpoint to know.
>
> I don't know what you are trying to get from all this,
> especially the "It would be very useful (for us) from a PR standpoint to
> know." part.
> It all sounds really odd to me but alas a cat does stupid things when it
> gets cornered...
> I sincerely hope that you BSD guys&gals stay far far away from the
> "microsoft is evil, we can't win it easily so let's bash it to
> hell"-attitude.
> {and that's my opinion, it's a freespeech world so don't start flaming
> me all of a sudden)
Your technical arguments are very nice and may turn out to be useful.
However, I can't say I agree with your comments. Jordan did NOT say
that he wanted to prove MS had, like, stolen the BSD networking code;
he merely said he was interested in proving or disproving any degree
of BSD-derivation of the Windows TCP/IP stack.
Saying that Solaris, IRIX, AIX and who-not have great parts of the
OS derived from SysV or BSD code is not really 'bashing' those OS's,
is it? There is still a large amount of their own code, created
with a large amount of work put in; the 'derived' part simply means
that they have given credit to others' work by reusing it.
Thus, if it turns out that Microsoft have really derived their TCP/IP
stack from the BSD one, this would not mean they've stolen the BSD stack
for lack of wits to write their own; it would simply means that they have
decided that the BSD stack was a nice piece of code, and it would not have
been worth it to put in all the effort necessary to rewrite it from
the ground up.
G'luck,
Peter
--
What would this sentence be like if it weren't self-referential?
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