DragonFly kernel List (threaded) for 2007-08
DragonFly BSD
DragonFly kernel List (threaded) for 2007-08
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Re: Is DragonFly using OSS 4.0?


From: "Thomas E. Spanjaard" <tgen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:13:38 +0000

Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves wrote:
On 8/17/07, Thomas E. Spanjaard <tgen@netphreax.net> wrote:
It's still not BSD, and the CDDL is only marginally better than the
GPL, imho.
Yes, and?  I believe it were the FreeBSD people who requested 4front
to let them use OSS as CDDL.  It doesn't mean it's a good license.
Hell, BSD is not a good license either.  But they both work.  Focus on
that.  I wish the world would work in the ideal way for everyone, but
it doesn't.

My point was, audio is a major subsystem of the kernel, and replacing that with something that's more restrictively licensed than BSDl is rather limiting towards people who might want to use DragonFlyBSD to the limits allowed by the BSD license(s).


As for those audio formats, we don't support any compression/storage
format in base other than just raw audio streams.
That mention of OM formats was just a way of saying "good bye, take
care", but, silly me.  I always forget the hostility of free software
developers againt Open Media formats.

I'm not against open media formats, but I just wanted to inform you that we do not ship with any codec, and I at least don't intend to. We don't ship with a graphical user interface either, leaving all that choice to the user.


And I don't think we
ever intend to bundle third-party libraries with restrictive license.
With the what? Restrictive?

I meant to say 'licenses'. I guess we do though, for some stuff.


I don't think you follow what us of Xiph
do.  Our specifications are in the Public Domain.  Our reference
libraries under the new BSD license.  Our tools under the LGPL.  Did I
mention that the formats themselves are patent-free and royalty-free?
Because I think you need to know that.

I know bits of what Xiph does, like icecast2 and theora; I didn't know you were part of that project. It pleases me to learn about your licensing policies though. However, I don't think anyone will add it to base, because it incurs additional maintenance overhead, and a base system is just that, base. We leave a lot of choices for the user, and I like that :).


What support for 'open media formats' do you expect from a base
operating system?
On the kernel?  None.  It's a user-space thing.  But on DragonFly as a
distro?  Support out of the box would be appreciated.  But hey, easy
installation through pkgsrc is appreciated.  DF users just need to be
educated about the benefits of the formats.  If everyone thinks the
same way as Mr Spanjaard, we Xiph may as well give up already.

For one, DragonFly is *not* a distro. It's an operating system in it's own right. You would call DesktopBSD or PC-BSD a distro of FreeBSD, but DragonFly is a fork. Our userspace is decidedly lean, e.g., no graphical user interface provided by default, no abundance of shells, mailer, hypertext or name daemons to choose from, etc.


Regarding 'educating' users: you're treading on dangerous territory there. I'd much rather have everyone decide what's 'good' and what's 'evil' for themselves, rather than being educated about it by someone according to that person's opinion. Now I do agree that open media formats are definitive plus, I oppose forcing that opinion on others.

Best regards,
--
        Thomas E. Spanjaard
        tgen@netphreax.net

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