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Interview with NetBSD Developer Hubert Feyrer

Posted by michael on from the daemon-spotting dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The NetBSD-PT User Group did an interview via e-mail with Hubert Feyrer. He has been a NetBSD developer for years and we wanted to know his views on NetBSD, his projects and some personal questions. He talks about the origin of pkgsrc and the g4u - g4l issue."

6 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. g4u/g4l for the lazy. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Interesting
    tfa sez:
    "g4u is a single floppy that contains a NetBSD kernel with a RAM disk . . . which can upload the whole harddisk (or only partitions) to a FTP server, and restore it later on.
    ...<snip>...
    I had an unpleasant encounter with some people from the "g4l" project recently, which copied my (g4u) code, removed both my name and the license (BSD) I put g4u under, and re-distributed it under their own license (GPL). "

    He subsequently links to http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/g4l.html for an analysis of this infringement.

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    1. Re:g4u/g4l for the lazy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      What a clueless idiot.

      You CAN'T relicense any code, except the one you wrote.
      You can do what you want with the code under the BSD license (that's because BSD people aren't communists, they value liberty) but of course you can't relicense it or take the credit for it.

      The big and evil corporations *include* BSD code in their products, they don't (they *can't*) relicense it or take credit for it.

      Nobody can "close up" BSD code: it will always be available for any use, because BSD code is born to be free. GNU/"F"SF/GPL code has never been.



    2. Re:g4u/g4l for the lazy. by Shanep · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're the clueless idiot. The BSD (sans advertising clause) is GPL compatible, any changes you make, you can choose to re-release the entire program under the GPL. The old code before your changes can still be considered under BSD, but everything else can be GPL'd.

      Have you read the BSD licence and this story?

      Copyright (c) ,
      All rights reserved.

      Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

      * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

      * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

      * Neither the name of the nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

      THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

      In other words (the bold part), the BSD licence must remain with any code that has had the BSD licence applied.

      The GPL idiot and thief, removed the BSD licence from the original authors BSD licenced code. You cannot change a few words and then strip out the copyright/licence, let alone replace those with your details and a licence of your choosing.

      If any original code remains, then the BSD licence must also.

      This 4gl business, is a copyright infringement and must be one of the most dishonorable and blatant OSS violations I have seen in a while. Unforunately, in every community, there are going to be some scumbags.

      --
      War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
  2. g4u by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
    g4u is great program for cloning disks. It is similar to Nortons product, but much cheaper, and not as user friendly ( a good thing in my books )

    I wonder if the FSF people would help fight the BSD license infringment...

    1. Re:g4u by SillyNickName4me · · Score: 2, Funny

      > (although some never grow out of it, like Micheal Moore). Basicly irrationally doing activism for activism sakes (like GPL advocacy) without figuring that their own actions are irresponsible, damaging, and stupid.

      Ah, you mean like typical anti Moore activism among American republicans?

      Gotta love those pot-kettle posts.

  3. like a BMW by yukonbob · · Score: 4, Informative

    fitting that he's from Germany...

    The interview was only mildly interesting, technically speaking, but I'd like to say that the "fit and finish" of the NetBSD operating system is the highest quality I've experienced. Things really seem to work well together, and it's quite a joy to use. It's obvious the whole OS is developed as an OS (versus a kernel w/ a bunch of other projects' programs), and that developers/decision makers think critically about their decisions... I liken it to (what I imagine) driving a BMW, versus a crappy economy car. Now if it only supported DRI for accelerated X --- perhaps that'll move forward w/ X Org gaining acceptance and momentum...