Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 12:26:51 +0000 From: Frank Shute <frank@shute.org.uk> To: "Sam Fourman Jr." <sfourman@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org, falkman@gamozo.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD Popularity Message-ID: <20100306122651.GA46491@orange.esperance-linux.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <11167f521003060044n798a2b3dj23f13f9b9ba5cdbb@mail.gmail.com> References: <4B8ABAB3.1060003@gamozo.org> <20100228201322.GA82783@rwxrwxrwx.net> <20100301053514.GA5440@orange.esperance-linux.co.uk> <11167f521003060044n798a2b3dj23f13f9b9ba5cdbb@mail.gmail.com>
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On Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 02:44:47AM -0600, Sam Fourman Jr. wrote: > > > To be honest, I think the licence puts off most of the commercial > > entities. Which is a *good* thing. > > > > Explain your point on this? BSD is supposed to be commercial friendly. > > Sam Fourman Jr. I saw Linux go from a sort of hobbiest system to what it is now, where most of the patches come from RedHat, IBM and Novell. These patches are focussed on whatever those big companies are focussed on ATM which doesn't necessarily coincide with what the user base wants. For instance, who cares that Linux is patched to run on IBM Z-series? IBM. Not me. So you get a lot of cruft in the kernel which has nothing to do with the desires of the user base but it's what a PHB at IBM wants. Yes, there are companies whom use and support FreeBSD but their say on FreeBSD development is limited and usually welcome. I'm thinking of Juniper. My belief is that the FreeBSD license puts off the big commercial players because it's written in clear English and can be written on half a page of A4. This puts the ball in the PHB's court unlike the GPL's reams of legalese which is punted along to the legal department. i.e the PHB can pass the buck and hence GPL software is used. That's just a guess. I can't think why a license, that allows more freedom than an obtuse license that is dependent on the uncertain interpretation of a judge, is used. Regards, -- Frank Contact info: http://www.shute.org.uk/misc/contact.html
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