Frequently Asked Questions
by Jim Mock <[email protected]>
Since I work at BSDi, I (and the
rest of the employees here) often get asked a lot of questions about
the company, mainly what's going to happen as far as a code merge
goes. I'd like to take the time now to explain how things are going
to work on that front.
As far as a code merge goes, the company (BSDi) will maintain its
existing BSD/OS technology track and related product lines (which
includes the BSDi Internet Super Server, and value-added BSD). The
company will also work to share and exchange technologies and provide
the open source project (FreeBSD) with operational and technical
resources. FreeBSD will remain open source, developed by the FreeBSD
Project, and distributed under the BSD license.
Another question I get a lot of is "So does this mean BSD/OS
will be free too?". No. That is a commercial product that
includes both open source and proprietary code. The BSD/OS source
code will continue to be available to customers who wish to purchase a
license for it (as they can now). It will not, however, become a free
operating system.
"Ok then, so FreeBSD isn't going to be free anymore either,
right?" Uhm, no. FreeBSD will remain free. That's what being
an open source operating system is all about. It is developed by the
community, for the community under the BSD license, and if the company
tried to make it commercial, developers would go find the needed
resources elsewhere and continue developing. The company is working
with the FreeBSD Project to enhance and share technologies and has
several engineers who have and will continue to work on the FreeBSD
Project. BSDi will continue to distribute FreeBSD on CDROM and back
the project with both money and resources.
As you can see, there is absolutely no reason to be
freaking out about what is going to happen to FreeBSD. You need to
keep in mind that BSDI merged with Walnut Creek CDROM to form BSDi,
not the FreeBSD Project, so before you start ranting about FreeBSD
"selling out", think before you open your mouth.
Until next time,
- jim |
