A project to bring one of the most advanced features of Sun Microsystems' Solaris operating system to the FreeBSD platform has started bearing fruit.
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Member since:2005-06-29
So by your logic, if I put source and binaries that I created up on a website with a paragraph stating "Do what you want with these, and have fun!" the source isn't open OR free? Bullshit. If I publish the sourcecode and place no restrictions on it, by definition it is both open and free. Licenses aren't necessary to make something free or open. In fact, licenses exist solely to LIMIT freedoms. Not to pick on the GPL which I consider a wonderful license, but it does indeed restrict what you can and cannot do with code you write. If your freedoms are restricted then you are not fully free. It may be open but freedoms ARE limited. Saying that limiting freedoms makes it free is utter nonsense and a pure contradiction. You really need a reality check.
Member since:2006-01-03
Good points 
In regards to how "free," one can't consider the source code in isolation from the people. Technically a "license" makes it legal to do something which is otherwise sinful and/or illegal for a person (or a corporation, which is a legal-fiction persona). The GPL license is granting more freedoms to a subset of people (the developers and future developers of that source code) at the expense of other people (those who would rather distribute the code, often modified and/or closed-sourced, in a way prohibited by the license. The license is forcing developer-distributers to make their modifications available to the world rather than a small subset (often a corporation). These developer-distributors would rather only offer the world a black-box solution with an incompatible license and a price tag rather than the GPL and source code to whoever wants it.
Member since:2006-04-30
> To be considered free software you have to check with the Free Software Foundation.
Why FSF, dont you think they would be abit biased. It is like asking IBM, where should I buy a server.
Ok all this "Free License" rubbish is getting very boring. Lets talk about dtrace. It is great to see it on other platforms as it is a really cool technology. If you want to know more about dtrace go visit
http://www.brendangregg.com or purchase the latest edition of Solaris Internals -
http://www.solarisinternals.com
DTrace aside, there are many other new features Open Solaris has or is being developed that thanks to Sun will be availiable to platforms such as FreeBSD. Cross pollination is great for the gene pool. Pity Linux people only want to focus on licenses, rather than sharing. BSD and Solaris Rock.
Member since:
2005-11-14
No, it is not. In fact, without a license people are not allowed to use the binaries and/or the code. You have to grant them permission or say the code is available under public domain.
To qualify as open source software the license must be compatible with the standards set by the Open Source Initiative. To be considered free software you have to check with the Free Software Foundation.