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CherryOS Goes Open Source

netsniper writes "The CherryOS website now acknowledges a forthcoming alliance with Open Source Software! After going 'on hold' recently, a re-release of CherryOS is purported to be coming in May according to the site. This is great news on the surface, but let's see how it pans out. This move is probably a result of the many reviews of their product that set out to prove it was bogus."

29 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. So I guess this means.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..that they are popping their Cherry?

  2. Re:Nothing to see. by rpozz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems unlikely that they're doing it voluntarily. Maybe they came to an agreement with the people behind PearPC in order to keep the whole thing out of court?

  3. oh please by eobanb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh please. Can this whole shenanigan just end already? By now, it's already been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that CherryOS is a repackaged version of PearPC (google for "spiro multimax 3000"). Arben and MXS are using absolutely any tactic to get attention. He must have a serious ego problem.

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  4. It's Easy by CypherXero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's easy. All they had to do in order to avoid all the bad press is to start out with it being Open Source. The GPL states that you can charge for a product, or do whatever you like with it, just as long as your provide the source code. And if you use source code from another project (PearPC), then you have to acknowledge it.

    It was so simple and easy, I don't know why they didn't Open Source Cherry OS from the begining.

    1. Re:It's Easy by mikepaktinat · · Score: 5, Informative
      And if you use source code from another project (PearPC), then you have to acknowledge it.

      The problem being that the developer has sworn up and down that he used none of the PearPC code.
    2. Re:It's Easy by Chris+Kamel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Probably because they thought they'd get away with it. Developers tend to think that noone will understand a thing in the inner workings of their applications as long as they protect the sourcecode.

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    3. Re:It's Easy by jb.hl.com · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hence why 'selling' a 100% GPL product is never going to be a wise business move.

      Which is why Red Hat crashed and burned all those years ago.

      Obviously.

      --
      By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
  5. how lies work... by jhealy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If your friend lies to you, and then comes clean... you maybe forgive them, but you never really respect them all that much, because you know they can lie to your face.
    CherryOS will never look that cool to any of us, because they only came clean because of being caught in a lie.

  6. "Due to overwhelming demand" by BabyDave · · Score: 5, Funny

    s/demand/threats of legal action/

    It would be funny if the OSS release proved that it wasn't a rip-off of PearPC. Unlikely, but funny.

  7. Re:Nothing to see. by RangerRick98 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, now that I've looked at the site, I can't help but wonder if they're announcing something else entirely. Maybe they mean that the "CherryOS" product is gone, and the cherryos domain is now for some phantom open source project that they plan to create under the name "Cherry" to try to regain some semblance of legitimacy.

    --
    "You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older."
  8. Still violating GPL? by The+New+Andy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From the GPL:

    4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

    Does this mean that CherryOS has already lost their license to use the source code from PearPC?

  9. Its too late for this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The developer of the Altivec emulation (the one who was collecting money for a lawsuit) has already revoked their rights to his code. Even if they try to open source they still have problems as they are now dealing with copyrighted code.

    1. Re:Its too late for this by arodland · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, you can't; the grandparent post actually makes no sense. A random developer can't say "you don't have the right to use my code anymore" and take away any rights that the GPL already granted you. That developer could release all of his further changes under the "GPL except CherryOS can't use this code" license, but said license is clearly GPL-incompatible :)

      What does affect CherryOS is section 4 of the GPL itself, which essentially states that any attempt to violate the GPL terminates any rights that the GPL might have granted you. Combined with section 5, that should mean that CherryOS has no right to distribute PearPC code.

      Now, for some unrelated speculation. Maybe they're planning on releasing some "bleached" source, and then say "look, guys, we opened the source just to make you happy, and prove to you that we never used PearPC code" ?

  10. Thank you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one wish to thank CherryOS developers for being so generous to give the fruits of their so hard work to the community.

  11. Re:Ummm... by rpozz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There were some absolute bastards who registered azureus.org a while ago (seems to have changed now), and offered a version of Azureus which came bundled with spyware. Hopefully this sort of practice of exploiting free/open software doesn't become too popular.

  12. Ah, the master plan to open source Windows! by ardor · · Score: 5, Funny

    This move is probably a result of the many reviews of their product that set out to prove it was bogus.

    1. Say Windows XP/Longhorn is bogus
    2. Wait for them to release it as Open Source
    3. ???
    4. Profit!!!

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    This sig does not contain any SCO code.
  13. It's always been open source by Anita+Coney · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're only admitting it now.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  14. Can they do this? by strider44 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can they just open source their "project" now? Is it not too late? Hasn't several developers permanantly revoked the GPL license from CherryOS so they can never use their code?

  15. Don't let it get away so easily by Wolfier · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It smells more like a half-assed effort to calm down legal threats than anything.

    The moment you see their words "popular demand" you know they're STILL trying to lie and get away with something.

  16. Re:Nothing to see. by Wolfier · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this is true, then the agreement sucks.

    At the very least, it must include an admission of guilt and a formal apology, or some form of other punitive measures.

    It seems they can *totally* get away with it now, and nobody will even know they did something wrong.

    Don't let it happen.

  17. copyright infingment != theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How can you steal it. They only copied and modified the source, no theft here.

    Move along, the parent is nothing but a TROLL!

  18. Re:CherryOS "Inventor" can't even ... by benjcurry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Right. I'm an American with a logical mind and I've never understood why people in the U.S. use mm.dd.yyyy...makes no sense. Either yyyy.mm.dd or dd.mm.yyyy, please!

  19. Re:Cherry OS using the gnu-head . . . by PhilHibbs · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is it a trademark? According to http://www.gnu.org/graphics/heckert_gnu.html the copyright isn't even owned by gnu.org, it's released under the Free Art Licence

  20. Umm yep by McDutchie · · Score: 4, Informative
    You can't simply revoke their license, the GPL has no provision for that (and thank God for that).

    RTFL:

    "4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License."

  21. A charitable view... by CDarklock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Assume the project starts up and hires some fly-by-night guy to design and build this system. He promises he can do it in four months for X amount of money.

    This guy tries like hell to build the project, but gets stymied by some stuff. So he downloads PearPC and tries to figure out what he's doing wrong.

    Eventually, he figures out that what he did wrong was promise something that nobody could deliver, so he panics and starts mucking around in PearPC to conceal its origin.

    When the deadline hits, he sends them his "obfuscated" version of PearPC and collects his check. He runs off into the night hoping nobody ever finds out.

    Meanwhile, the completely innocent company puts this project up for sale. The open source community raises hell. The company goes "OMG! WTF?" and yanks it off the market.

    After some examination, the company decides that the only possible way to recover from this (according to their lawyers) is to GPL the project. Since it qualifies as a work made for hire, they own all the rights to the non-PearPC code, so they can license *that* however they like.

    Just playing devil's advocate. Maybe the big bad company isn't the villain here; maybe it's just one crappy little ass-hat developer.

    --
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    1. Re:A charitable view... by saddino · · Score: 5, Informative

      That was my initial impression as well, but that is clearly not the case. As the developer, Arben Kryesiu has been extremely vocal about his "creation" of CherryOS and has granted many interviews proudly describing his "inspiration" to write CherryOS -- hardly a "fly-by-night" developer who got caught up in a lie and skipped town after delivering a bogus product.

      The "company" that owns CherryOS, Maui-X Stream, has the following in their bio:

      Jim Kartes is the president of Maui-X Stream. He and Arben Kryesiu started the company in the winter of 2003.

      So, this publicity hounding "developer" is a also co-founder of the company, and hence: the company is not an innocent player in all of this.

  22. I have by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

    RTFL

    I have. But have you heard of a small legal principle called 'due process'? Once you've legally established that 4 has been violated, the license is revoked. It said so in the next sentence. Your claim that the license has been violated is not a conviction.

    Otherwise IBM would have had to stop shipping AIX long ago based on SCOs claim that the license is revoked. See the difference? If you want to terminate their license, you must prove (a preponderance of evidence) that there are grounds for termination.

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:I have by McDutchie · · Score: 4, Informative
      The fact that no due process has taken place does not mean the license has not been terminated; it just means that such termination has not yet been legally proven. That's not the same thing. The recovation still takes place at the moment of the infraction.

      In other words, if the termination gets legally proven, then the termination has confirmed legal force from the moment of the first infraction of the GPL.

  23. Link to revocation of licence rights by CdBee · · Score: 4, Informative

    " If you're reading this, anyone at MXS, I have been far more than fair. I have so far only ever asked you to comply with the GPL, and release your source code. But now you've pissed me off. Being that I need now contact a lawyer, I will not stop simply there. Being that I'm full copyright owner of my code, and can do as I please, including providing overriding licenses to those openly available.

    Since I view Maui X-Stream as in breach of the GPL under which my code is distributed, let this serve as public notice, that my code is no longer legally available for any reason to Maui X-Stream. Since they refuse to co-operate with the very lenient guidelines of the GPL, and refuse at all ends to comply with it. They can no longer claim any rights under the GPL license concerning my code. As such, my original rights of copyright apply, and I refuse any legal access to Maui X-Stream to my code (my code being specifically the G4/AltiVec emulation in generic, and in specific to x86 scalar, and SSE as implemented as a modification to the PearPC project)"


    Text copied from here

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