GPL OpenSolaris 10... I don't think so.
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| cjcox Nov 03, 2004 1:56 PM EDT |
Article says:
Quoting: The Unix leader expects to release all of the major features of Solaris 10 under an "OSI-approved" license, Schwartz said. He would not speculate on what such a license would be, but said that the chances of its being the popular GNU general public license (GPL) were as good as with any other licensing scenario. This is so far out of touch with reality it's hilarious. Sun believes in the GPL as much as Microsoft does and has stated so publicly on numerous occasions, often times standing side-by-side with Microsoft when making the claim that the GPL is bad for business and destroys intellectual property (based off of comments just made in the past few months!). Also, as the article mentions, Solaris was created over time (it's quite old now. 1988) and has lots and lots of different company's IP stuck in it (Solaris wouldn't be Solaris without all the non-Sun stuff). So... even if J.S. believed the GPL was alright, they still might not be able to get it under the GPL because of all of the non-Sun elements in Solaris. Sun is obviously working hard with the OSI side of the fence and will have an OSI compliant license (no doubt, I can guarantee it)... but it can't and won't be the GPL. In conclusion, Mr. Schwartz is LYING deliberately. You can make up your own minds as to the reason why he felt it was necessary to lie. Personally, I wouldn't trust anything this man says or does immediately (doesn't mean that he never tells the truth... you just need to carefully evaluate the man's statements). With that said, moving even towards an OSI approved license is a step.... a step that Sun would have never made even 5 years ago. Sun's strategy is to get the full-tilt community support often associated with the GPL while offering a more restrictive license to "protect" their intellectual property. I have no problem with Solaris, OpenSolaris or JDS technically. But we need to watch the B.S. coming from J.S. And IMHO, there's no reason for it... Sun has an excellent strategy... stuff like this will only hurt their future (time for J.S. to shut up). Btw... the folks (vendors) mentioned later that will come around to OpenSolaris are the basically the same ones who support non-Open Solaris today... so NO CHANGE. But it sounds good if you repeat something you've already accomplished (easier to fulfill the promise when it's already fulfilled!).... self fulfilling prophecies. Sheesh... and I thought all of the campaign rhetoric was over. |
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