Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 11:43:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org> To: "Michael W. Lucas" <mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org> Cc: Hackers FreeBSD <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: general Darwin imports (was Re: Darwin cmd import?) Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1040602114059.17221A-100000@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <20040602135757.GC89452@bewilderbeast.blackhelicopters.org>
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On Wed, 2 Jun 2004, Michael W. Lucas wrote: > On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 07:55:21PM -0400, Robert Watson wrote: > > The FreeBSD Core Team took a look at the APSL a while back, and decided > > that similar to LGPL/GPL, it was an acceptable license for use in > > userspace for stand-alone tools, but that similar protections to LGPL/GPL > > would be required for kernel code (not built by default, carefully marked, > > etc). That said, Apple tends to release only code they've heavily > > rewritten or created from scratch under APSL; code they modify tends to > > remain under the existing license (CMU, BSD, etc). Generally they're > > careful to label the license on the download page. > > I'm writing an article about Apple's licensing and returning code to the > community, but if you want to become a committer read this: > > Apple has made a lot of improvements to various FreeBSD utilities, and > re-released them under the original licensing. This provides an > excellent source of patches. > > People may gripe about Apple not returning stuff to the open source > community. The truth is, they have. They aren't responsible for > converting what they return into a format we can use, but they haven't > deliberately obfuscated their code. Sorting out the diffs would be a > pain, but not horribly difficult. > > According to Jordan Hubbard, the best source of low-hanging fruit is > their modified libc. They've had people work out all sorts of bugs, > clean up functions, performance improvements, etc. Libc changes require > extensive testing. They also have wide-reaching benefits. It's still > BSDL'd, so we can take back whatever we want. > > If you want a commit bit, go and pick some of this fruit and send-pr it. I would also add that Apple has worked hard to improve their interaction on the open source licensing front. APSLv2 is a dramatic improvement over APSLv1. They've also been working internally to improve their ability to return changes under non-APSL licenses, and recently released several new components in the new Darwin drop under the Berkeley at my request. There are some areas where I don't think we'll see any license movement (HFS+, for one thing), but there are other areas where (at least from the outside) it appears Apple recognizes the benefit of widespread use of the code, community participation, etc. And I'm happy for us to prove Apple right by adopting their pieces in sensible ways, improving them, and pointing them at the improvements. :-) Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects robert@fledge.watson.org Senior Research Scientist, McAfee Research
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