Interview with NetBSD Developer Hubert Feyrer 45
An anonymous reader writes "The NetBSD-PT User Group did an interview via e-mail with Hubert Feyrer. He has been a NetBSD developer for years and we wanted to know his views on NetBSD, his projects and some personal questions. He talks about the origin of pkgsrc and the g4u - g4l issue."
g4u/g4l for the lazy. (Score:5, Interesting)
"g4u is a single floppy that contains a NetBSD kernel with a RAM disk . . . which can upload the whole harddisk (or only partitions) to a FTP server, and restore it later on. I had an unpleasant encounter with some people from the "g4l" project recently, which copied my (g4u) code, removed both my name and the license (BSD) I put g4u under, and re-distributed it under their own license (GPL). "
He subsequently links to http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/g4l.html [feyrer.de] for an analysis of this infringement.
Not the first time (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:g4u/g4l for the lazy. (Score:2, Insightful)
You CAN'T relicense any code, except the one you wrote.
You can do what you want with the code under the BSD license (that's because BSD people aren't communists, they value liberty) but of course you can't relicense it or take the credit for it.
The big and evil corporations *include* BSD code in their products, they don't (they *can't*) relicense it or take credit for it.
Nobody can "close up" BSD code: it will always be available for any use, because BSD code is born to be free. GNU/"F
Re:g4u/g4l for the lazy. (Score:1, Troll)
- Hubert
The Open Source issues. (Score:1)
Indeed. How nice it would be if the GNU people abandoned this crusading style of theirs, according to which everything that serves to their political purpose is ultimately justified, no matter how disgusting.
Open Source is supposed to be fun.
The problem is, there's somebody for whom Open Source is a goddamn political thing. Hence, all means are legitimate - spreading FUD and violating licenses among these - to get rid of whatever is in the way. The BSD license, much less restrictive
Re:g4u/g4l for the lazy. (Score:3, Informative)
Have you read [opensource.org] the BSD licence and this story?
Copyright (c) ,
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
* Redistribution
Re:g4u/g4l for the lazy. (Score:1)
I say respect the licenses. Give credit where crdit is due.
Hubert, you have one supporter and I suspect many, many more.
Very well said - count me in as well. This is not about which license is better. This is, frankly, about compl
g4u (Score:4, Informative)
I wonder if the FSF people would help fight the BSD license infringment...
Re:g4u (Score:3, Funny)
Ah, you mean like typical anti Moore activism among American republicans?
Gotta love those pot-kettle posts.
Re:g4u (Score:2)
Like Michael Moore, or -- for a better example -- like the Founding Fathers! Didn't they realize that claiming independence instead of rationally, slowly, carefully, and diplomatically working for reform as a colony would cause the deaths of so many people? How immature of George Washington!
</sarcasm>
Re:g4u (Score:1)
(sarcasm)
You are putting the fight for American Independence and the fight against "Proprietary Software" on the same level??...
Get a life. No, seriously.
Re:g4u (Score:2)
I think that I very clearly compared the people and their actions, not the ends they were trying to meet.
Not to mention that neither Michael Moore NOR George Washington have ever fought against Proprietary Software, so I would have to say that your comment is moot.
Re:Invalid comparison (Score:2)
What do you define as Communism?
Certainly it has nothing to do with the desire to "provide for the common welfare."
</sarcasm>
like a BMW (Score:4, Informative)
The interview was only mildly interesting, technically speaking, but I'd like to say that the "fit and finish" of the NetBSD operating system is the highest quality I've experienced. Things really seem to work well together, and it's quite a joy to use. It's obvious the whole OS is developed as an OS (versus a kernel w/ a bunch of other projects' programs), and that developers/decision makers think critically about their decisions... I liken it to (what I imagine) driving a BMW, versus a crappy economy car. Now if it only supported DRI for accelerated X --- perhaps that'll move forward w/ X Org gaining acceptance and momentum...
Very interesting, from a ports perspective (Score:2)
for those who don't know [pkgsrc.org]
He probably is what would be portrayed as a hackers-everyman.
I mean, yes, he does have a lot of CompSci and coding experience, but he does some of the necessary things that most people (relatively of course) can do, such as documentation, mirroring, and helping out with packages.
There's more to a project than just coders
NetBSD deserves more media coverage (Score:1)
As soon as NetBSD 2.0 comes out I'm gonna install it on my Acer laptop. I don't know if the setup might require some fiddling, but I'm sure that every minute spent to understand this OS would be well worth (as it has been for FreeBSD).
Re:Have a look at this :) (Score:1)
The more I think of this guy, the more I pity him. Not only he violates a BSD copyright (and to violate a *BSD* copyright, as little restrictive as it is, it takes really much!) but, after all the upheaval around his "project" (mandatory quotes..) he doesn't even have the guts to come out of the anonimity he hides behind.
Really, a clueless trolling /. Anonymous Coward looks like a brave hero compared to this person. :)))
PF (Score:2)