Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 17:47:00 -0700 From: Josef Grosch <jgrosch@mooseriver.com> To: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Windriver, Slackware and FreeBSD Message-ID: <20010417174700.A79803@mooseriver.com> In-Reply-To: <3ADCDCA7.A01F5F40@acuson.com>; from djohnson@acuson.com on Tue, Apr 17, 2001 at 05:15:35PM -0700 References: <3ADCDCA7.A01F5F40@acuson.com>
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On Tue, Apr 17, 2001 at 05:15:35PM -0700, David Johnson wrote:
> Today's announcement of the abandonment of Slackware caught me by
> surprise. All Slackware employees laid off. Slackware was *profitable*
> for Walnut Creek and BSDi. I think they've lost more in good will than
> they will gain. That, plus some blatant GPL baiting, makes Windriver
> pretty slimy.
>
> So, how is FreeBSD going to fare? Will they be canned as well? Will they
> try to distance themselves from Windriver? I think it would serve
> Windriver right if Slackware, FreeBSD and the ftp.freesoftware.com
> people upped, left, and started over with their own company.
It's sad to see that WindRiver has chosen not to hire the Slackware
developers that were employed at Walnut Creek/BSDi. They did great
things. WindRiver has stated that they will continue to support FreeBSD
just as Walnut Creek/BSDi did. See this link;
http://www.windriver.com/press/html/bsdi_faq.html
To be perfectly honest, I am a little suspicious of WindRiver. I hear them
talk the talk, I want to see them walk the walk. I think the real reason
they bought BSDi is because in the embedded systems space they rule, but
they have seen the embedded Linux system making inroads into their
market. They decided that they need an Open Source System to compete. The
BSD license is more business friendly so why not buy a troubled BSD
company. I guess the suits at WindRiver decided that the baggage that BSDi
came with, namely FreeBSD, was not going to be too much trouble besides if
they treat FreeBSD nice they might get good karma points with the Open
Source people. Lord knows with WindRivers licensing and pricing structure
they are going to need all the good karma points they can get.
Time will tell.
Josef
--
Josef Grosch | Another day closer to a | FreeBSD 4.3
jgrosch@MooseRiver.com | Micro$oft free world | www.bafug.org
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