A recent discussion on the lkml examined the possibility of a Linux implementation of Sun's ZFS. It was pointed out that the file system is released under the GPL-incompatible CDDL, and that Sun has filed numerous patents to prevent ZFS from being reverse engineered. Max Yudin pointed out, "according to Jeff Bonwick's blog Sun issued 56 patents on ZFS, but I have no idea what they patented. Sorry, binary compatible ZFS reimplementation with GPL license might not be legal."
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Member since:2005-07-24
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Hehe, owned by their licence.
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Well. I'm a Linux advocate. And I am partial to the GPL, despite what a pain in the ass it can, at times, be.
BUT... I can agree that it is a good thing for GPL advocates to occasionally get hoist by their own petard.
There is a lot of unfairness going on in the form of "we can take your code but you can't take ours" and it is mostly in the direction of BSD Project -> GPL Project.
You can actually substitute many permissive licenses for "BSD" in the statement above.
It's good for GPL advocates to, at least occasionally, see that the GPL has thorns as well as teeth.
It is the inflexible nature of the GPL, more than the terms of the CDDL, that are denying Linux ZFS.
Then again, by Linux standards, ZFS is, in Andrew Morton's words, a "rampant layering violation".
Beyond the licensing issues, I think we'd be more likely to see Reiser4 merged than ZFS, without some major philosophical reworking of the design.
Edited 2007-04-20 22:18
Member since:
2005-11-23
Hehe, owned by their licence.