Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 13:52:14 -0500 (CDT) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: BSDI & FreeBSD Message-ID: <14720.34014.697453.105233@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <bulk.87320.20000727101110@hub.freebsd.org> References: <bulk.87320.20000727101110@hub.freebsd.org>
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> A good example of the absolute freedom of the BSD code base is that it WAS > taken private at one point by BSDI, which has recently merged back with > CDROM.COM and which shared a lot of code with the FreeBSD project. BSDI was > offering a lot of support, and was what made them viable in the market. It's a lot more complex than that, and BSDI deserves a lot more credit than that. The BSD code base started life with AT&T copyrights on it. While their version had a BSD-style copyright on it, you weren't allowed to have a copy unless you had an AT&T license for the original code. Most - if not all - commercial Unix distributions include BSD code, so in that sense they "took it private". Even those using pure BSD paid for the appropriate AT&T licenses, and passed that on to their customers. BSDI could have taken the same route - but instead they released a product that wasn't encumbered by AT&T's license. AT&T sued them, and they put up with a lot of pain in fighting that, and deserve a lot of credit for doing so. That code base this fight was over was the code base for the *BSDs, so you figure out where FreeBSD would have been without this lawsuit. <mike To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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