Re: freebsd on an ebook ereader ?

From: Lorenzo Salvadore <developer_at_lorenzosalvadore.it>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2023 19:39:16 UTC


------- Original Message -------
On Thursday, May 11th, 2023 at 8:46 PM, Mario Marietto <marietto2008@gmail.com> wrote:

> How do you plan to come back with the money needed to adapt FreeBSD to make it work on an old phone if the FreeBSD code is based on a license that's even more open than the GPL ? Where will you get the money to develop it ?

Actually, many companies love the BSD license. The fact that it is more open than the GPL allow them to
keep their sources closed.

See this article for more information on the topic:
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/articles/bsdl-gpl/

I have also translated it in Italian some years ago (the translation
could likely be improved, but it is better than nothing):
https://docs.freebsd.org/it/articles/bsdl-gpl/

Many companies use FreeBSD, see:
https://freebsdfoundation.org/freebsd-project/what-is-freebsd/

They also often contribute to FreeBSD, either by sponsoring developers
and projects, by upstreaming their own patches, or by donating:
https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2023-01-2023-03/#_freebsd_foundation

And please remember that many developers and contributors to FreeBSD
are just volunteers and do not need any money to make things happen.
I am a volunteer for example, I do not get any money, I am here only
for the fun and for the opportunity to learn things and share my work.
So money is not necessarly needed to have FreeBSD running on a phone:
someone (maybe you?) might do it just for the fun and share it.
This is one of great things of open source.

> ---> People are interested only in things that work out of the box.
> 
> 
> it's not totally true. During the years Linux became more and more popular even if,at the beginning,it didn't work out of the box. It only means that it needs more time to be accessible,due to the fact that it is technically more advanced than Windows. Today Linux is not ready for the mobile market,yet. But it will be. This is happening.

If I remember correctly, Android is Linux based. I would not define
Linux "not ready for the mobile market".

I understand that you do not like Android (I do not either, although
I have to use it... I wonder however why you do not like Android but you
use a gmail address). You might like other things such as the PinePhone
(again, Linux based) or GrapheneOS (according to
https://grapheneos.org/faq#upstream it contributed to Linux and OpenBSD).
If what you want is a to have a shell on your phone, there is the Termux
app (open source).
Not sure if those help you with the project you have in mind however.

Cheers,

Lorenzo Salvadore