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MicroBSD Is No More

Posted by michael on from the microbsd-is-dying dept.

TrumpetPower! writes "Recently there's been quite a row in the OpenBSD community over copyright infringement by the OpenBSD spinoff, MicroBSD. Many parts of MicroBSD would seem to be a wholesale search-n-replace of the two names...including copyright notices. As a result, MicroBSD has shut down. It's worth noting that, as of this story submission, the MicroBSD Web site is still up and running with no special notices."

4 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Re:go to microbsd.net instead by photonrider · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Rather than bail out completely I'd like to see them become part of the OpenBSD project and provide a slimmed down OpenBSD option. It was extremely promising to have OpenBSD features on a device with only a minimal RAM disk. It was poor judgement to replace the copyright info. It's good they've fessed up. The idea of a microbsd is still a good one.

  2. Sad to see it go, really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    MicroBSD was an interesting project, and if we Slashdotters don't kill the server completely, it's interesting to look around. However, looking at the infighting and piss-taking on the mailing lists, it's still apparent that there BSD crowd makes problems for itselves.

    Unfortunately there's too much of a "holier than thou" feeling amongst many BSD coders, but then again, getting rid of Matt Dillon (see earlier /. BSD story) won't help either. I want the BSDs to do well, but the community can be v. problematic...

    Here's an example. After using Linux for several years, I gave FreeBSD a try and was very impressed by the solid kernel and coherent userland. There were a few things I couldn't fathom out though, like getting USB joysticks working, and asking on the mailing lists or similar forums always got the same kind of responses: "Go back to Linux if you want that", "FreeBSD is brill and doesn't need to support it" etc.

    It's this zealotry, patronising attitude and belief that FreeBSD is the "one true OS" that is really damaging its acceptance. All OSes have their loudmouth advocates, but I've never seen anything like the hideous attitude that seems so common among FreeBSDers. And as said, it's all the more a shame because I was genuinely interested in the system and respected its good points.

    And note that I specifically say FreeBSD - I've found that OpenBSD and NetBSD users realise that their OS isn't going to be ideal for all situations, and don't feel threatened by alternatives. It's the stuck-up FreeBSD zealots who think their OS is better than *everything* that are the real problem.

  3. best sample of search and replace... by vectrex · · Score: 5, Interesting

    % man 1 banner
    gives out: banner(1)
    (can't paste it here, I get that lameness junk filter because of all those # characters).

  4. Re:after reading the various links... by MisterFancypants · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Agreed. It seems pretty clear that they weren't trying to pull something over on people -- I mean they made the code available and had to know that people 'in the know' would see their code. Seems like it was just a cut & paste screwup on the part of one developer.

    I don't entirely blame them for closing down shop in this case. As a long-time proponent of Open Source I must admit it sometimes sickens me how annoyingly 'victimized' OSS authors can act when they sense a license violation.

    I mean, sure, you *should* bring attention to license violations when you see them, but the OSS response tends to be way overboard, calling for boycotts, fatwahs, and whatever else before all the facts are known and before it is clear if the violation was really underhanded or just an oversight. It is this kind of religious zealot behavior that is holding OSS back from wider commercial adoption, IMO.