Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 13:47:49 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Cc: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>, Eivind Eklund <eivind@FreeBSD.ORG>, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD, .Net comments - any reponse to this reasoning? Message-ID: <20010711134749.F93534@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <20010711122650.A62765@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>; from jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org on Wed, Jul 11, 2001 at 12:26:50PM %2B0100 References: <20010630174743.A85268@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010707160255.A18525@thinksec.no> <20010710151059.A52201@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010710175800.A77023@FreeBSD.org> <3B4C10F7.7CBDB859@softweyr.com> <20010711122650.A62765@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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j mckitrick said on Jul 11, 2001 at 12:26:50: > | What an excellent starting point. A few obvious other ones leap to my mind, > | including Kirk's softupdates code, Grog's vinum volume manager, and a lot > | of the VM work contributed by Matt Dillon in the search for more performance > > I thought maybe these were just because the users/programmers also happen > to be FreeBSD supporters, or that maybe they were the exception to the rule. > > What is the likelihood that for every 'give back' we get, there are 3 other > great modifications that are kept locked away somewhere? Quite likely. But if it's truly useful, either it will be unlocked because of the earlier "enlightened self interest" argument, or someone will reproduce it... In practice the GPL doesn't always help you get these "great modifications" back either. First, if it's a private modification being used internally, there's no obligation to give it back. Second, as many have pointed out, it's rather hard to know when GPL code has been "stolen" and used in a commercial product. Third, even if the modifications are returned to the community under the GPL, the project leaders may not be interested. Examples: for various reasons RMS didn't want to accept the XEmacs changes. SGI has made various contributions to the linux kernel many of which never made it to the official version because they conflicted with Linus's world-view in some way. See http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ and http://oss.sgi.com/projects/sgilinux-combined/download/1.0-patches/ R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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