Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S268240AbUJJKlN (ORCPT ); Sun, 10 Oct 2004 06:41:13 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S268246AbUJJKlM (ORCPT ); Sun, 10 Oct 2004 06:41:12 -0400 Received: from webmail.sub.ru ([213.247.139.22]:58126 "HELO techno.sub.ru") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S268240AbUJJKlK (ORCPT ); Sun, 10 Oct 2004 06:41:10 -0400 Subject: A BSD-licensed kernel is already available From: Mikhail Ramendik To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1097404866.3017.76.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.5 (1.4.5-6aspMR) Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 14:41:07 +0400 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1814 Lines: 43 Hello, It's somewhat strange to read through debates on the supposed offer for BSD-licensing the Linux kernel for $$$, for quite some time, with nobody noticing that the operation would be totally redundant. A Unix-like kernel, ported to many platforms, well written, well supported, actively developed, and widely used, is already available under this license. You can download it from http://www.netbsd.org . (FreeBSD and OpenBSD are ported to a less extensive list of platforms, thus NetBSD). Now if it lacks some driver or feature that is necessary for the potential purchaser, the said purchaser will spend the money in a much wiser way by contacting the developers of the Linux driver/feature, and asking them to port that code to BSD, under the BSD license, for $$$. A side effect would be *huge* popularity of the project in the BSD community. They've been losing out "the masses" to Linux due to the latter's commercial success; and they believe (go ask them!) that the BSD general design is actually better than the Linux one. Big commercial support for BSD might be seen as a long-awaited revolution, at least by them. This is especially interesting doe to the remark that "some other enterprising individual will replicate similiar code". There's your similar code under the BSD license. *All*, 100%, of a big, nice, usable kernel! Yours, Mikhail Ramendik REALLY curious why BSD has not popped up in the discussion before... P.S. I am neutral on the technical merits of BSD vs. Linux; I use Linux, but the sole reason is better distro support. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/