Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 27 Jun 2001 11:34:08 -0700
From:      David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com>
To:        "Kenneth P. Stox" <stox@imagescape.com>
Cc:        freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD and Microsoft
Message-ID:  <3B3A2720.815A74C0@acuson.com>
References:  <XFMail.010627111801.stox@imagescape.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
"Kenneth P. Stox" wrote:
> 
> http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2001/06/27/dotnet.html

Quick summary: Microsoft is going to offer some .NET stuff for FreeBSD,
including CLI, C# and an ECMAscript compiler. Throughout the interview
the Microsoft guys, David Stutz, mumbles a lot and casts forth heaps of
double speak.

Some particular quotes:

"We don't feel comfortable with Linux because of the GPL nature of the
kernel ..."

Now, I'm not a kernel hacker. I haven't written a compiler in twenty
years. I don't know anything about .NET. But for the life of me I can't
figure out why the licensing of a kernel stops them from making a Linux
port as well. Are they planning to make C# a kernel module? Are they
confused and think that glibc is under the GPL as well?

"We have chosen FreeBSD because of licensing issues, yes."

Didn't I predict this just one or two weeks ago? Nothing Microsoft is
doing with a .NET port to Unix has anything at all to do with the GPL.
They aren't writing any Linux kernel drivers, they aren't modifying any
GPL sources, and they aren't linking to any GPL libraries. It's nice
that they chose FreeBSD over Linux, but their motivation has nothing to
do with viral licenses. The GPL is completely irrelevant in this case.

I'm bracing for the backlash from the Linux guys, which will undoubtedly
aimed at us...

David

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3B3A2720.815A74C0>