"Flameeyes (a Gentoo/FreeBSD developer) recently came up with some serious problems among the various *BSD projects who use BSD-4 licensed code (which is all of them). Even other projects like Open Darwin may be affected. The saga started when he discovered the license problems with libkvm and start-stop-daemon. "libkvm is a userspace interface to FreeBSD kernel, and it's licensed under the original BSD license, BSD-4 if you want, the one with the nasty advertising clause." start-stop-daemon links to libkvm, but it's licensed under the GPL which is incompatible with the advertising clause. The good news is that the University of California/Berkley has given people permission to drop the advertising clause. The bad news is that libkvm has code from many other sources and each of them needs to give their permission for the license to be changed. At the moment, development on the Gentoo/FreeBSD is on hold and the downloads have been removed from the Gentoo mirrors."
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Member since:2006-03-12
"I have several customers who like Linux and enjoy the level of customization however say that the license disputes are making them consider either OS X or windows. "
Absolutely...and I suspect strongly that they get it from you. Its not like every program on OSX/Windows does not contain some serious restrictions that those EULA's http://www.eff.org/wp/eula.php, by its very nature is more of a minefield for the user.
Member since:2006-11-08
real smart comment show maturity. For the record it does not come from me and I actually prefer Linux and my entire organization runs SLES and Suse 10. I also contribute to numerous projects and support Linux, I do however recommend the benefits of OS X and recommend it over MS to keep UNIX in the organization as oppose to Windows but you know what we have become a community of attackers so I expect Cyclops not to be able to disagree reasonably.
In any case I was pointing out that the customers are paying close attention to the license issues and expect vendors to bare the burden of license issues such as Novell, Apple, and MS.
Member since:
2006-11-08
This is exactly the type of confusion the Stallman will introduce when he tries to block Novell with the GLP v3 clauses. These licenses are becoming more restrictive they are becoming more of a pain.
I have several customers who like Linux and enjoy the level of customization however say that the license disputes are making them consider either OS X or windows.
The license thing is becoming a real problem and put customers potentially at risk such as the on hold issue of projects.