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Tuesday June 14, 2005
OpenSolaris: A specific "I told you so" I'm a happy camper. Why? The fruit of many-a-laborer is coming to fruition. Sun has done what it (we) set out to do. For the many within Sun who have put forth so much effort to make this happen, THANK YOU. For those on the pilot and the OpenSolaris board who have jumpstarted (pun intended) the "formal" OpenSolaris community, THANK YOU. I'm also a happy camper because my wireless link is getting clogged right now downloading OpenSolaris source code and build tools.
Over the last 1+ year, Sun and the OpenSolaris community have taken a beating over OpenSolaris. Partially because it's not Linux. Partially because of the CDDL (read: not GPL). Partially because it took longer than planned. Open sourcing this much potentially legally encumbered code is hard. We delivered 6 months late. Our bad (slang for "our fault"). That's still well ahead of LongHorn :)
In general, my memory is crap. However, some things just get burned in. I'm not the kind of person to say "I told you so". No payback mentality here. Nope. So I won't tell Mr. Fink "I told you so" (although someone else just might).
I won't tell Steven "I told you so". Here's a quote from one of Steven's articles:
Actually, over the years, I've liked Sun. I still like Solaris—I just don't think it will ever be open-source—but what I don't like is Sun's constant game playing.
It's not game playing. It's being legally responsible and socially responsible by not simply dumping code over the wall.
I wont tell the numerous folks hiding behind "Anonymous Coward" "I told you so" either, mostly because I don't want to lower their self esteem even further.
I also think we have answered the Vaporware comments the most direct way possible without saying "I told you so".
I definitely don't have to tell foo "I told you so". Foo seems to have a pretty level head on the topic.
jl deserves an "I told you so", but I won't say it.
If I leave anyone out to not say "I told you so" to, please fill in the blanks (comment) for me. Thanks.
Now to the point. To those inside of Sun and the OpenSolaris community. I told you so. Then again, you already knew that. You made it happen.
(2005-06-14 09:15:48.0) Permalink Comments [3]
Posted by Logan on June 14, 2005 at 04:52 PM PDT #
Posted by Jeremy Utley on June 14, 2005 at 11:06 PM PDT #
Jeremy, thanks for taking the time to comment. First, all of the code can be used by any open source community abiding by the terms of the license. The CDDL is an OSI-approved license meaning it is an "open source" license. Claire blogs on how we came about the CDDL. In particular you may want to focus on where she states that we didn't choose the GPL because we wanted to enable the OpenSolaris kernel code to be compiled and linked with other open source code under different licenses.
You may also want to take a look at this entry regarding the "open source community". Which open source community are you referring to?
Last, but not least, you can share code licensed under the CDDL between open source projects (providing all license terms of all licenses are met). That is a major point of the CDDL. With GPL code, you can share code only with other GPL code. That may be beneficial or detrimental, depending on what the project goals are. Different projects have different goals. With the CDDL, you can mix and match CDDL code with non CDDL code.
Hope this helps.
Posted by John Clingan on June 14, 2005 at 11:56 PM PDT #