Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 20:53:10 -0400 From: Jim Mock <mij@osdn.com> To: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Windriver, Slackware and FreeBSD Message-ID: <20010417205309.A1533@guinness.osdn.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, 17 Apr 2001 at 17:15:35 -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.
Why? Because they don't want to use GPL'd software in their products?
Wind River wanted BSD licensed stuff. They'd have no reason to hire the
Slackware guys (by the way, "all" equals 4 people). Slackware wasn't a
part of the deal in the first place. Go read the FAQ that accompanied
the press release:
http://www.windriver.com/press/html/bsdi_faq.html
This is why they didn't hire the Slackware guys:
Much of the innovative and differentiating software for embedded
applications is developed at the kernel level, so the BSD license
is considered to be far more "business-friendly" than agreements
like the GNU General Public License (GPL), which governs the use
of Linux (another UNIX-based OS). The BSD license allows this
critical software asset to be owned by its authors.
In other words, they aren't interested in GPL'd software.
> 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.
*sigh* Wind River wanted BSDi's software assets because of the BSD
license and the fact they'll use bits of FreeBSD in their products.
Why would they can the developers? That's like chopping of your feet
because they're sore. WR wouldn't have even bothered with hiring the
FreeBSD developers on staff if they were going to can them a week or
two later.
- jim
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