freebsd should be rewritten based on microkernel architecture

[Aryeh Friedman]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 2:53 PM Valeri Galtsev <galtsev at kicp.uchicago.edu>
wrote:

>
>
> On 4/17/20 1:18 PM, Aryeh Friedman wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 2:03 PM Paul Pathiakis <pathiaki2 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> I'm a system architect/Sr System Administrator, comp sci degree, 30
> years
> >> experience, etc.
> >>
> >> I have to make a living.  I do so with RH/CentOS etc.
> >>
> >> Honestly, if people truly understood the difference between BSD and
> Linux
> >> (full OS vs kernel) and all the nuances as well as the philosophy, I
> truly
> >> believe that there would be a large migration to FreeBSD.  Most of the
> >> largest and most successful companies in their respective fields use it.
> >> (Apple, Netflix, NetApp, etc)
> >>
> >
> > A very important distinction needs to be made here all the above
> (including
> > your use as sys/netadmin) are essentially  end user applications and thus
> > there revenue is derived from means other then selling the code they
> > develop.    Apple is first and foremost a hardware company, Netflix is a
> > content company, NetApp sales raw disk space (btw I should thank them for
> > bhyve).
> >
> > As a *programmer* I make my living from writing code and the fundamental
> > problem with GPL is it forces me to give away the one way I make a living
> > (I do not sell hardware, IT services, movie rentals, etc.).   How is it
> > fair under any possible definition of fair to force me to give away the
> > thing I need/use to survive?
> >
>
> The answer here is simple: it is free World (hm, almost). Don't do what
> you feel is not fair with respect to you. If you [partly] use GNU
> licensed code, you will have to release whatever uses it written by you
> under the same GNU license.
>

Thanks for summing the reasons not to use GPL (and use BSD).   GPL is
designed specifically to screw small developers (the very people it claims
to be protecting).  Where is BSD is designed to allow the balance between
open and closed source that the developer is most comfortable with.  Like I
said in an other post I tend to release any general purpose (non-client
specific) code and libraries open source but for custom work I would be
*lucky* if all they did was fire me for open sourcing my work for them and
if I was not so lucky sue me for breaking the NDA I usually are required to
sign to even know what their project is.   The reason is most people who
pay for custom software consider the functionality the software provides to
be a major competitive advantage (unless they are a Fortune 500, university
or government agency).  For example the remote cardiac monitoring system we
made for on client is what allows them to be one of the few non-equipment
vendors that offers remote cardiac testing/monitoring including having a
cardiologist (not some AI) write a full report on the results.


> If you don't want to, but still need to use/incorporate into your code
> somebody's else, you can use code released under open source licenses
> that allow to keep derived code closed source (BSD and Apache licenses
> come to mind).


See above.



> Another alternative, get yourself hired by company, which
> creates closed source products and which likely will own everything you
> create. You will get your dough for programming. How fair _that_ is you
> will discover when you leave the company and will not be able you re-use
> the code you created being in that company for anything else.
>

I have worked for companies under this arrangement and the BSD license
(along with FreeBSD) is one the main reasons I was able to break free of
it.   This not possible if you link against GPL code and thus FreeBSD (base
system) has been very wise to avoid GPL code as much as possible and when
it does makes sure it is compatible with commercial uses.


> There always are choices. I was a programmed once, but now I'm humble
> sysadmin, but no, not because of software licensing affecting my life.
> This is something I do better these days.
>

I went the opposite direction and have nothing but respect and gratitude
for people who are able to do open source without hurting their wallets but
as a small 2 person team we don't have that luxury for about 60% of our
code (the other 40% falls into the area that we have no problem making open
source).