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No BS In BSD

Posted by Nik on from the NP:-vigil-in-a-wilderness-of-mirrors dept.

keepper writes. . . well, absolutely nothing actually. But he (or she) did send a pointer to There's no BS in BSD, another ZDNet think piece on the Walnut Creek/BSDI merger.

3 of 6 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A real Switch by Shadowlion · · Score: 3

    For one thing, it's not really switching "from a complete closed source model, to a Free/Open Source software model."

    They're basically taking FreeBSD and using that as a base for building a better FreeBSD. Over the next few years, they're going to selectively take BSDI code and merge it in, and release the resulting merged code as BSD licensed. That's not really "open sourcing" BSDI, and it doesn't count as such.

    On the other hand, they *ARE* pursuing a more aggressive open source model. Rather than open sourcing BSDI, and adding another fragment to the BSD world, they're going to merge the two operating systems to build a much better operating system than either alone. While you can't say that it's "really" open-sourcing BSDI, in many ways it's a step better.

    Kudos to BSDI for doing this - they make a better product in the end AND they do it in a friendly, intelligent manner.

  2. A real Switch by keepper · · Score: 3

    This marks the first company, to my recollection that switches from a complete closed source model,
    to a Free/OpenSource software model. As to why this is not getting as much coverage as it deserves,
    Beats me.

    While it is true that they will continue on with a closed source BSD/OS, their aim is to integrate
    all the code that is not under an NDA, to the FreeBSD code base, couting towards the release of FreeBSD 5.0.
    They will also bring their support expertise to play. Which has a great deal of value due to their
    Corporate support experience.

    Hopefully, this will work out, and will show that taking such a bold venture, will pay off


    FreeBSD..... The Daemon made me do it .

  3. It's a HE by keepper · · Score: 3

    Just wanted to clear that.