Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 00:15:18 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "David Johnson" <djohnson@acuson.com>, "Kenneth P. Stox" <stox@imagescape.com> Cc: <freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: FreeBSD and Microsoft Message-ID: <000101c0ffa2$15f5f7c0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <3B3A2720.815A74C0@acuson.com>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG >[mailto:owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of David Johnson >Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 11:34 AM >To: Kenneth P. Stox >Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: Re: FreeBSD and Microsoft > > >"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? > It doesen't. However, the issue is pure politics and has nothing to do with technology. If the Linux people want to port any of the Microsoft FreeBSD code to Linux, they can. Microsoft isn't going to prevent this (although obviously they won't permit their code released under the BSD license from being re-released under the GPL license) I'm sure that there will even be Linux people willing to do the work too. The Linux people haven't said squat as commercial ISV after commercial ISV has started to release Linux binaries and no FreeBSD binaries, and supplied code optimized for Linux and not FreeBSD. It's certainly time now for them to do some work porting our stuff to their stuff, rather than expecting that the FreeBSD Linuxulator will relieve them of responsibility for porting their code to FreeBSD. (which is what is going on now) Unless Microsoft releases a license with their code that somehow mandates that it cannot be ported to Linux specifically (which I think is not going to happen) then there is nothing technically preventing the Linux people from porting it to Linux. Undoubtedly, Microsoft will try to release their code with a license that is itself somewhat viral in nature as it will mandate that any of their code they release cannot be moved under the GPL at a later date, but I don't see a problem with this. The Linux supporters have no problem porting Sendmail to Linux and I don't see as how the Sendmail code that comes with Linux distributions has it's license changed to be under the GPL. (although up to Sendmail 8.8 this could have legally been done) The real reason that the Linux rank-and-file are pissed off now is that they see this as a political slap in the face, because now what is going to happen is that as the Fortune 1000 CIO's that want to start integrating some Open Source into their Windows networks see Bill Gates waving people down the FreeBSD road, it now becomes OK for those people to introduce FreeBSD and publically admit this. I can easily see that a CEO of a Fortune 1000 company that knows shit about technology could be asking the question of their CIO: "Jim, I've heard you say that we need to get more familiar with Open Source before, I'm concerned because I understand that your using Linux. I have read that Microsoft is telling people that Linux is bad, and that the FreeBSD Open Source is good, couldn't you use FreeBSD instead of Linux for your Open Source projects?" In short, the Linux rank-and-file have spent years and years on missionary work trying to get corporations to use Linux. (not FreeBSD, note) They have finally now begun to see some small successes and all the sudden they find that all the arguments they have used to convince people to use Linux are now being echoed back by those same people as reasons that they are going to use FreeBSD. From the Linux rank-and-file's point of view, the FreeBSD users haven't done near as much work getting people to use FreeBSD instead of Linux, and yet we are the ones that are getting set up to reap the benefits, not them. > >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... > I don't think your going to see as much as you think. Note that Tim O'Reilly has NO FreeBSD books, has ix-nayed several FreeBSD book projects, has many Linux books, and was a signatory on that Bruce Peren's letter. Yet he is the one publishing this FreeBSD article that rightly should have appeared on Daemonnews. I think instead that if Microsoft is successful in getting corporate users to use FreeBSD over Linux that all of the major Linux people are suddennly going to be turncoating and running around the country giving speeches and interviews acting like they have been staunch FreeBSD supporters all this time. Their swan song, of course, will be "It's all about the Open Source" instead of "Linux Forever" which it is now. It's going to be sickening. Save all the nasty quotes from Bruce you can find about FreeBSD because I bet that in a year he is going to be The FreeBSD Projects best friend, and there will be a massive whitewashing campaign to paint over all that. By then "VA-Linux" will be name-changed to "VA-FreeBSD" and Linus Torvalds will amazingly have been transmorgified from an ex-Finnish student into an ex-Finnish student that did Student Exchange at University of California, Berkeley. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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