What is the philosophy of FreeBSD about the licenses?

[Matthew Seaman]

On 11/10/2014 18:36, françai s wrote:
> The following link explains the philosophy of OpenBSD and explains why the
> GPL is unacceptable according to this philosophy  :
> http://www.openbsd.org/policy.html
> 
> What is the philosophy of FreeBSD about the licenses?

On the whole: pragmatic.   Most of the FreeBSD source code uses the
FreeBSD license (no surprise there), but the project is happy to use
code licensed under similar terms -- like the MIT or ISC licenses.
Ultimately the aim is to have the whole system licensed under such terms.

However, where there is a compelling reason, and where it does not
impose restrictive terms on the entire FreeBSD project, we are prepared
to use GPLv2 or earlier code.  Not GPLv3 though -- the onerous, viral
terms there immediately rule it right out.  This is why the system
compiler stuck at gcc-4.2 for a long time, and is now being replaced by
clang.  We're also happy to import CDDL code (read: ZFS) which could not
be used with recent GPL versions.

Eventually we'll have a completely GPL free system.  It's mostly useful
now with the GPL'd bits omitted, and many embedded software and other
companies are currently using it like that.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey


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