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Minix Now Under BSD License

Posted by Hemos on from the released-under-new-management dept.

Minix is now Free Software! Andrew Tanenbaum posted to the comp.os.minix newsgroup yesterday announcing: "Better late than never. I finally got permission from Prentice Hall to change the MINIX license to the BSD license. The lawyers sort of sat on this for two years." You can read the full posting on deja, as well.

7 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. A.T. vs L.T. and the future of Minix by ajs · · Score: 4

    I really enjoyed reading the Tanenbaum vs. Torvalds debate in the back of Open Sources. As much as many of A.T.'s arguments seem short-sighted in retrospect, he had several very good points about Linux (e.g. it was not portable, it could not deal with externally maintained extensions, and other things that had to be fixed in the 2.0 and later series). I think it will be well worth the community's time to re-read the Minix source and figure out if there's any more lessons to be learned, and/or incorporate the features that make sense.

    Question, though: does Minix still have a future as a teaching tool, or do OSes like Linux and *BSD make it obsolete? I would certianly like to see a good textbook that teaches OS design, using the source to a modern OS as examples....

  2. Put this announcement in context by wct · · Score: 4
    For those who think this is just another Open-Source announcement, check the "Linux is obsolete" background.

    Who would have though it would end like this :)

  3. Venn Diagram People!!! by istartedi · · Score: 4

    OK. To all the complainers that it isn't GPL'ed: Anything that is (non advertising) BSD can be incorporated into GPL. In other words, GPL provides a subset of the freedoms provided by BSD.

    Now, follow my directions. 1. Draw a big circle. 2. Label it "BSD". 3. Draw a little circle inside the big circle. 4. Label it GPL. 5. Draw another little circle inside the big circle, but be very careful to make sure that it doesn't touch the other little circle. 6. Label the second little circle "closed source".

    Now, what have we learned from this little exercise? We learned that BSD is a big circle that encompasses both free and proprietary software. It's a rising tide that lifts all boats, not a whirlpool that sucks them down.

    Let's sing a little song: "Now I know my BSD's, won't you come and play with me..."

    Got it kiddies? Good. Now it's nap time.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:Venn Diagram People!!! by ianezz · · Score: 4
      1. Draw a big circle. 2. Label it "BSD". 3. Draw a little circle inside the big circle. 4. Label it GPL. 5.Draw another little circle inside the big circle, but be very careful to make sure that it doesn't touch the other little circle. 6. Label the second little circle "closed source".

      Since all BSD (version 2) softare can be relicensed without notice (even if it not usually the case), I'll draw instead 1 big circle labeled BSD, which intersecates many other circles labeled GPL, LGPL, Artistic, MIT, MPL, QPL, ZPL, etc. Then, a circle labelled "closed source software" that intersecates mainly the BSD circle, but other circles as well.

      The result? A pretty complex picture.

      So: if you want your software to be used by as many as possible, choose BSD (version 2). If you want your software to stay free, choose GPL. If you want something in the middle, choose something in the middle. But please, stop whining on what's the best license (best for what?) and ask yourself "what do I want to do with my code?" and "what if I want to merge it with some other people's code or someone else wants to?"

      My 0.03 Euro. Damned inflation.

  4. Now I know my bAS by orpheus · · Score: 5
    Let's sing a little song: "Now I know my BSD's, won't you come and play with me..."

    FreeBSD really rocks,
    But only Intel / Alpha box.
    The 'Net' one runs on so much more.
    The 'Open' one is more secure.

    Now I know my BSD's. Won't you come and play with me?

    __________

    --

    If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime

  5. Now, what if... by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 4
    ... somebody reposts it under the GPL???

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  6. Better Deja link by mattdm · · Score: 4
    If you don't want to see all the surrounding crap, Deja thoughtfully makes this format available as well:
    <http://www.deja.com/[S T_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=607967341&fmt=text>.

    --