On Thu, 2001-11-08 at 14:13, Bryan-TheBS-Smith wrote:
> "Jesse W. Asher" wrote:
> > Isn't this kinda antithetical to the open source movement? This is
> > basically saying, "Hey, we're going to make something open source, just
> > not on these platforms."
>
> No, it's the _exact_opposite_, "we're going to make something open
> source, just not on these closed-source platforms." That's what the GPL
> is all about, instead of other licenses like BSD. If Sun wants XFS for
> closed-source Solaris, they can commercially license it from SGI since
> they hold the copyright. This what we mean about free software being
> "free speech," not "free beer."
>
> Dual-licensed GPL/commercial is a very powerful profit model. The
> community gets it and gets to refine it for free, but your competitors
> don't. And if the product is good, the community will adopt it as a
> standard, and then marketshare forces your competitors either out, or to
> work with you on it. But the best part is that the community decides
> whether or not your product is good and should be used widespread, not
> your marketing department.
>
> > Are you saying that the source code can't be used by someone to port it
> > to Solaris, or that it just hasn't been done?
>
> If you have the access to the Solaris source code, you can take the XFS
> source and port it as long as the end-result is only used internally.
> GPL allows this, unlike many commercial open source licenses (e.g.,
> Apple, Sun, Netscape, etc...).
>
The terms of the GPL can only compel the copyright holder of "other
portions" to release their code GPL'ed. If an independent party was
to port XFS to solaris and release it under the GPL it would be within
the terms of the GPL since said independent party does have the rights
to GPL solaris.
This is also true of any BSD's.
So if anybody knows enough about solaris vfs/mm and is not bound up
by some sort of agreement with Sun, and has a large sum of cash to live
on... go for it. XFS-Solaris.
It might be interesting to note many small companies previously
generously developing GPL'ed products by burning all the VC money they
could find are either no longer around or quickly moving to a license
model that will allow them SELL a product.
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