[LINK] Sun microsystems, to parallel success of linux, makes solaris code available
Tony Barry (tonyb@dynamite.com.au)
Sat, 2 Oct 1999 12:17:51 +1000
Source: Edupage, 1 October 1999
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, TO PARALLEL SUCCESS OF LINUX, MAKES SOLARIS CODE
AVAILABLE
Sun plans to open the source code for its Solaris operating
system in hopes of replicating the success of Linux. However,
rather than giving the source code away for free, Sun will
release Solaris source code under its "community-source license,"
says Sun CTO Greg Papadopoulos. Community-source licensing will
allow programmers to download and change Solaris code, provided
they include open interfaces to the software they develop and
report glitches to Sun and other programmers. Developers using
Solaris code for non-commercial applications will not have to
pay, while those using the code for commercial programs will pay
licensing fees to Sun. Sun's agreement differs from Linux rules
because Linux is free even for commercial use, although users
must publicly post changes to the code. In opening Solaris'
source code, Sun aims to establish Solaris as the leading OS for
Internet sites as well as corporate data centers.
(Wall Street Journal 10/01/99)
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Re: [LINK] Sun microsystems, to parallel success of linux, makes so laris code available
hartr@redhat.com
Mon, 4 Oct 1999 15:48:01 -0700 (PDT)
On 2 Oct, Tony Barry wrote:
> Source: Edupage, 1 October 1999
>
> SUN MICROSYSTEMS, TO PARALLEL SUCCESS OF LINUX, MAKES SOLARIS CODE
> AVAILABLE
> Sun plans to open the source code for its Solaris operating
> system in hopes of replicating the success of Linux. However,
> rather than giving the source code away for free, Sun will
> release Solaris source code under its "community-source license,"
<snip>
In case people here are confused, please note that the Sun Community
Source Licence is not an "open source" licence. For those interested in
such things, I suggest a comparison of the SCSL and the GPL (or other
accepted open source licences). The Free Software web site has an
excellent overview of the four freedoms necessary for a software to be
considered free software. You can find this at
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.htm
Please note - this message is not a criticism of Sun - they own the
source code and it is theirs to licence as they see fit.
-- Robert Hart hartr@redhat.com Red Hat, Inc (California Office) Phone: +1 650 967 0888 Fax: +1 650 965 7307
Re: [LINK] Sun microsystems, to parallel success of linux, makes so laris code available
Rachel Polanskis (r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au)
Tue, 5 Oct 1999 13:26:35 +1000 (EST)
On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 hartr@redhat.com wrote:
> > SUN MICROSYSTEMS, TO PARALLEL SUCCESS OF LINUX, MAKES SOLARIS CODE
> > AVAILABLE
> <snip>
>
> In case people here are confused, please note that the Sun Community
> Source Licence is not an "open source" licence. For those interested in
> such things, I suggest a comparison of the SCSL and the GPL (or other
> accepted open source licences). The Free Software web site has an
> excellent overview of the four freedoms necessary for a software to be
> considered free software. You can find this at
>
> http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.htm
>
> Please note - this message is not a criticism of Sun - they own the
> source code and it is theirs to licence as they see fit.
Please note, just because something is not GPL doesn't mean it's
bad for you either.
There's a lot of arguments about this right now - Let's just say that Solaris
is not "Free" but it is "Open". For many people this is enough.
Instead of GPL vs. SCSL wars the "community" should be using these
philosophies as examples to vendors who obfuscate and otherwise
do not release their source code or API's at all.....
rachel
-- Rachel Polanskis Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia grove@zeta.org.au http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au http://www.nepean.uws.edu.au/ccd/ "Yow! Am I having fun yet?!" - John Howard^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Zippy the Pinhead
Re: [LINK] Sun microsystems, to parallel success of linux, makes so laris code available
Damien Miller (dmiller@ilogic.com.au)
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 23:01:52 +1000 (EST)
On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Rachel Polanskis wrote:
> > Please note - this message is not a criticism of Sun - they own the
> > source code and it is theirs to licence as they see fit.
>
> Please note, just because something is not GPL doesn't mean it's
> bad for you either.
>
> There's a lot of arguments about this right now - Let's just say
> that Solaris is not "Free" but it is "Open". For many people this
> is enough.
>
> Instead of GPL vs. SCSL wars the "community" should be using these
> philosophies as examples to vendors who obfuscate and otherwise do
> not release their source code or API's at all.....
The SCSL is a cleverly contrived license. It basically states that
you are free to improve on Sun's source code, as long as you:
a) Don't sell it, and
b) Contribute all you changes back to Sun.
Basically they are trying to reap the benefits of Open Source
development without giving anything in return.
There are other licenses that require either A (most "free for
non-commerical use licenses), or B (The Mozilla public license) - but
few require both.
Yes, this is better than closed APIs and hidden source, but it not as
"Open" as Sun would have you believe. It certainly does not meet the
Open Source Definition[1] by any stretch of the imagination.
Regards,
Damien Miller
[1] http://www.opensource.org/osd.html
- --
| "Bombay is 250ms from New York in the new world order" - Alan Cox
| Damien Miller - http://www.mindrot.org/
| Email: djm@mindrot.org (home) -or- djm@ibs.com.au (work)
Re: [LINK] Sun microsystems, to parallel success of linux, makes so laris code available
hartr@redhat.com
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 05:16:49 -0700 (PDT)
On 5 Oct, Rachel Polanskis wrote:
> Instead of GPL vs. SCSL wars the "community" should be using these
> philosophies as examples to vendors who obfuscate and otherwise
> do not release their source code or API's at all.....
Rachel
Please do not assume that I am opposed to Sun's actions simply because I
was at pains to point out that the Sun Community Source Licence is not
an open source licence (there is much confusion on this point - hence my
post).
I would however disagree with you that describing the SCSL as "open" is
appropriate - as this simply adds to the confusion. The SCSL is
probably best described as a "revealed source" licence - in that you
can indeed see the source code and this is most definitely better than
not being able to see the source code.
However, there are a number of difficulties associated with the SCSL
when view from the stand point of the open source community, not the
least of which is the problem that could arise from open source
developers becoming 'tainted' by looking at the Solaris code.
-- Robert Hart hartr@redhat.com Red Hat, Inc (California Office) Phone: +1 650 967 0888 Fax: +1 650 965 7307
Re: [LINK] Sun microsystems, to parallel success of linux, makes solaris code available
stephen loosley (stephen@melbpc.org.au)
Tue, 05 Oct 1999 22:30:01 +1000
At 03:48 PM 4/10/99 -0700, hartr@redhat.com wrote:
> The Free Software web site has an excellent overview of the four freedoms
> necessary for a software to be considered free software. You can find this
at
> http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.htm
Thanks for this, Robert .. and also for your lengthy and very informative private
reply to my link-query regarding the new Armed Linux beta release. Whilst you
are active on link ... would you like to comment on the following? I do feel sure
link members won't mind a little Red Hat Linux boosting .. if it's appropriate :-)
Red Hat Poised for New Linux Release
Friday 1 October 1999
http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/breaking/19991001/A35047-1999Oct1.html
THE US-based Red Hat Linux distributor will release an upgraded version of its
Linux operating system in the US on Monday.
The company said its new version of the software would include a streamlined
installation, online software updates, and enhancements for managing distributed
computing architectures.
The move comes a fortnight after fellow Linux distributor Caldera Systems released
an enhanced version of its open-source flagship openLinux, featuring remote mass-installation
capabilities, Y2K compliance, and an improved Linux wizard.
Corel also launched a beta version of its Linux operating system last week.
--
Cheers, Robert Stephen Loosley www.stephen.hm
Re: [LINK] Sun microsystems, to parallel success of linux, makes s olaris code available
hartr@redhat.com
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 04:58:54 -0700 (PDT)
On 5 Oct, stephen loosley wrote:
> Red Hat Poised for New Linux Release
> Friday 1 October 1999
> http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/breaking/19991001/A35047-1999Oct1.html
>
> THE US-based Red Hat Linux distributor will release an upgraded
> version of its Linux operating system in the US on Monday.
>
> The company said its new version of the software would include a
> streamlined installation, online software updates, and enhancements
> for managing distributed computing architectures.
Full details of Red Hat Linux 6.1 are available at www.redhat.com (and
of course you can download the entire operating system from our ftp
site or one of the many mirror sites). Red Hat Linux 6.1 (for Intel
X86, Compaq Alpha and Sun SPARC/UltraSPARC) will be in stores here in
the US on 18 Oct - and should be available in Oz on that date or soon
after.
An interesting point to note is that Red Hat Linux 6.1 includes level 1
High Availability features - heartbeat, failover and loadbalancing for
static data on ftp/http sites. This comes at a time when similar
features have recently been withdrawn from the beta of another
operating system.
> The move comes a fortnight after fellow Linux distributor Caldera
> Systems released an enhanced version of its open-source flagship
> openLinux, featuring remote mass-installation capabilities, Y2K
> compliance, and an improved Linux wizard.
Red Hat Linux passed through inddepended y2k certification earlier this
year - you can find information on this on our web site.
> Corel also launched a beta version of its Linux operating system
> last week.
There are many Linux distributions (and the number is increasing as
with the increasing adoption of Linux). All Linux distributions are
very similar in that they all use the Linux kernel and a set of core
tools. The differences between distributions arise as a result of
different views of the marketplace and the services that are provided.
Red Hat is very committed to providing an open source operating system
- we ship no proprietary software as part of our OS and we also provide
full source code to all components we write (such as our new,
text/graphical installer - Anaconda) and our level 1 High Availability
package (Pirhana). This is not the case for most other commercial
distributions.
We do this not because we are open source zealots, but because our
users and customers, from individuals to large corporations, tell us
that by doing so we are providing them with a significant benefit: the
return to them of control of their operating environment.
-- Robert Hart hartr@redhat.com Red Hat, Inc (California Office) Phone: +1 650 967 0888 Fax: +1 650 965 7307