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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!mips!mips!think.com!ames!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!horse.ee.lbl.gov!torek From: torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: Funding 4.4BSD Development Date: 2 Jul 1992 12:12:05 GMT Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley Lines: 50 Message-ID: <24318@dog.ee.lbl.gov> References: <79@ampr.ab.ca> <1992Jun26.021947.28286@gateway.novell.com> <1992Jun28.204256.14620@uunet.uu.net> <1992Jul1.232031.15719@gateway.novell.com> Reply-To: torek@horse.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek) NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.112.15 (I see most of this as irrelevant---some of the postings are merely idle speculation, some merely flamage, some merely points of view---but I want to inject one fact into the discussion anyway.) In article <1992Jul1.232031.15719@gateway.novell.com> terry@npd.Novell.COM (Terry Lambert) writes: >I think the final answer must come from CSRG; we will certainly be impacted >by whomever they "will" BSD to, if anyone. I find this statement most puzzling. The 4.3BSD net.2 release tape is copyright (by the UC Regents), as will be 4.4-alpha and whatever may come after. But the copyright says that you (yes YOU personally) may do almost anything you want with the code. As Keith Bostic once put it, ``You can sell it, you can give it away, you can wrap fish in it.'' The only real constraint is that, whatever you do, you have to acknowledge Berkeley, you you must obtain the Regents' approval to use the name ``Berkeley'' in advertising. Thus, the question as to whom will ``inherit'' BSD is moot. EVERYONE has already inherited it. BSDI in particular decided to add to it and sell the ``added value'' as a package. If you do not like that, you can go off on your own and add your own value and sell it, for more or fewer dollars, with whatever licensing terms you prefer. You can even add to it and then give it away, as Bill Jolitz is doing. The BSDI folks have been careful not to use ``side channels'' to siphon off CSRG code before it was generally available. (Note that my configuration code got to BSDI via LBL, not Berkeley, in exchange for stuff from BSDI for use at LBL. In fact, the kernels at CSRG do not use this code at all, though I would like to fix that [in my Copious Spare Time no doubt :-) ].) I do not believe that, even if CSRG were to anoint someone with the Holy Oil of Berkeley, it would help much (if at all) in making that group the New Leadership. Leadership is not something you hand off like a torch in a relay race. To mix up the metaphor a bit, the front runner is the one who *stays* out in front. In short, if you want BSD to develop in some direction: well, the code is out there for the taking---go forth and develop! The real problem is getting everyone else to take you seriously. The only way to do that is to *be* serious about it, get some work done, and get it out there. That is how BSD came about in the first place. >Whatever happens, it is certainly the passing of an era. Well, that is true enough. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Lawrence Berkeley Lab CSE/EE (+1 510 486 5427) Berkeley, CA Domain: torek@ee.lbl.gov