Today, VMware announced that it has released a majority of its VMware Tools as open source software (GPLv2), part of the project Open Virtual Machine Tools. "The Open Virtual Machine Tools (open-vm-tools) are the open source implementation of VMware Tools. They are a set of guest operating system virtualization components that enhance performance and user experience of virtual machines."
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Member since:2005-07-06
Which project? Surely you know that ESX 3 uses linux as a kind of bootstrap to load the hypervisor, and the question becomes whether or not the hypervisor now constitutes a derivative work.
I'm not saying this is true, but obviously linux would be the project they'd want to "steal" from if they were going to.
Member since:2006-12-28
Dude, before you start calling people zealots, you might actually want to read up on what's been going on in the IT world recently.
There has been quite a few questions asked about ESX3 and, more specifically, if it can be considered a derived work of the Linux kernel.
I understand if you don't like, or care, about this sort of thing but if you use software for your proprietary product, you need to abide by the license of that software.
How would you feel if VMWare built ESX3 on top of FBSD yet 'forgot' to mention that in they're copyright?
Member since:2007-06-30
Just because they use linux to setup an environment to boot their hyporvisor doesn't mean they have to give you the code to ESX. At most it means they have to dish out their bootstrapping code. It is quite easy to use linux to setup and boot DOS/BeOS/OpenStep/etc... but this by no means says that I have to give you the code to any of those OS's.
A derivative work is not "anything it touches"
Member since:2005-08-27
Quite funny that you call me a GPL zealot when my systems of choice use CDDL (Solaris) and BSD(NetBSD). Perhaps you should look for a forum where the only intent is to argue versus one of discussion.
To give credit where it is due, is to look between the lines regardless of license, especially if you read about the questionable underpinnings of the ESX server.
The question here is not whether one license is better than the other, but rather how honorable is VMware and how "innovative" is their product if they use mostly off-the-shelf technology.
Member since:
2007-03-14
Did you misread the announcement? Their open sourcing the tools.. not their virtualization software
.
In reality, this will allow developers of operating systems to freely "interface" with the virtual machines etc..
As for them violating GPL, exactly "which" project would they "steal" from? You GPL zealots are annoying..