Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2001 20:32:16 -0400 From: "Matthew Emmerton" <matt@gsicomp.on.ca> To: "Dave Uhring" <duhring@charter.net>, <freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: XFS (was: ReiserFS (was: JFS (was: The FreeBSD core team needs your help)))a Message-ID: <009901c1080e$9baa05e0$1200a8c0@gsicomp.on.ca> References: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0107090901340.326-100000@vimfuego.saarinen.org> <3B48E1B0.4000302@charter.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> Juha Saarinen wrote: > > >On Sun, 8 Jul 2001, Matthew Emmerton wrote: > > > >>So why don't we get a FreeBSD port of XFS done "real soon now", see what > >>kind of kernel mods we have to make, and talk nice to the SGI folks? If > >>they're running into brick walls at every turn on the Linux path, why don't > >>we make the FreeBSD path look like the yellow brick road? It may be a great > >>way to get some SGI resources headed the way of FreeBSD. > > > >I asked about this before... SGI isn't keen on Sun, Microsoft, IBM et al > >"leeching" its intellectual property, so while the developers like the > >idea, the lawyers are dead against it. > > > But SGI has released XFS under the GPL. Sun, et al, can hardly "leech" > their IP due to the provisions of the GPL. Any modifications made to > SGI's product and distributed must have the source code also made > public. This is the "virus-like" aspect of GPL about which Microsoft > has been complaining so loudly; MSFT cannot use the code without > risking the exposure of their own IP. This "virus-like" aspect of the GPL is also very loudly explained in a 12-page presentation distributed internally to all developers at IBM. (The virus-like aspect is a big deal. If someone accidentally *statically* linked a piece of GPL'd object code, such as GNU getopt(), into a major product such as DB2 EEE for Linux, then they would be forced to open the code to DB2. That would not be a very profitable move for IBM.) The problem for me (as a developer who would love to port XFS to FreeBSD, but by being employed by IBM, cannot), is that IBM would have IP rights over any changes that I would have to submit back to SGI in order to make XFS work on FreeBSD. For IBM to release that code under the GPL, SGI would have to work with IBM and come to an agreement (which would involve all of the IP laywers from the two firms battling it out). Since this process would take months and a pile of cash, FreeBSD would never see XFS. Sad, but true. Maybe I need to switch companies :) -- Matt Emmerton To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?009901c1080e$9baa05e0$1200a8c0>