Can Sun "Open Source" Solaris?

By Peter H. Salus

June 26 2005

My superficial impression is that the "Open Solaris"
that has been released is a clear descendent, with
much derivation, from SVR4. There are enormous
chunks of SVR3 and SVR4 that are (c) Regents of
the University of California and a number of other
agencies. (Part of the networking code in 4.4BSD
was done by the UUNET Networking Group, for
example.)

The "opening" of the USL/BSDI papers makes this
ability on Sun's part yet more questionable to me.
I have not done a detailed examination of the
"comingling" of the code(s), but I really think
a discussion of which cats are in the bag and which
aren't is of great importance: Scott seems to have
opened the bag and put it on display.

I'm not interested in what license which program
is under -- I'm interested in where the code's
from and who (if anyone) can release it.

---
Peter H. Salus

07:58 PM EDT

My question is...

By Anonymous

June 26 2005

Which SCO did Sun get agreement with so they are free of lawsuits from SCOG? I'm not sure that was ever clarified.

One could presume that the money paid to SCOG for the licensing had to do with that, however, that would be circumstantial. Considering what SCOG has claimed over the last two years, I wouldn't believe anything they claimed unless I saw the actual contract. At this point, I don't believe Sun has ever said anything about that particular licensing so we only have SCOGs word for it.

RAS

08:04 PM EDT

My question is...

By Latesigner

June 26 2005

Essentially, back in 2003, SUN paid a SCO license fee to the tune of 10 million
or so.
Microsoft chipped in a similar sum for a license as well at that time.
That's what initially funded the suit against IBM and the attacks on LINUX.
So what was SUN buying?
Immunity.
This is an improvement over "pure malice" as a reason but I don't see
that it helps SUN's standing with open source developers.

---
The only way to have an "ownership" society is to make slaves of the rest of us.

08:34 PM EDT

My question is...

By PJ

June 28 2005

actually, I believe they paid to free up the code.

05:45 AM EDT