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OpenBSD Removes qmail and djbdns From Ports Tree

Posted by michael on from the nothing-so-bitter-as-a-license-dispute dept.

KingArtr writes: "qmail and djbdns have been dropped from the OpenBSD ports tree. According to the message from Theo de Raadt at the OpenBSD Ports Archive its because the license does not permit modification.". Update by nik: Note that NetBSD and FreeBSD continue to include qmail in their ports trees. DJB's license forbids redistribution of modified binaries, but does not forbid distribution of a 'framework' for modifying the source code.

2 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Standard Theo Behaviour by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://www.sigmasoft.com/~openbsd/archive/openbsd- ports/200108/threads.html#00462

    Go read the thread and maybe you will change your mind who is blowing their stack. Theo did nothing of the sort.

  2. Re:I personally don't care about binaries... by squiggleslash · · Score: 2, Informative
    Reading the threads on OpenBSD journal, where Reed himself was involved, I got the impression that the only childish person telling others to fuck off was Reed himself.

    I suggest taking a look for yourself. I think it's reasonable to suggest that the only reasons Reed got agreements with the NetBSD and FreeBSD teams were (a) Because Reed wanted to give Theo the finger for daring to be unhappy at Reed's retroactive licence change ("clarification" my arse), and (b) because both *BSDs are a little happier about including proprietry code than the OpenBSD team are.

    I'm glad Theo stuck to his guns. OpenBSD remains the the most open Unix-like operating system out there.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.