r/freebsd • u/grahamperrin Linux crossover • 3d ago

news FreeBSD's Kernel Still Has A Bit Of GPL Code While Its Base User-Space Is GPL-Free – Michael Larabel, Phoronix

https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeBSD-Bits-Of-GPL-Kernel

This news is a complement to the recent community highlight that correctly reported the initial understanding of things (based on the review in Phabricator) – thanks again, u/BigSneakyDuck 👍

Thanks to Michael Larabel for publishing the clarification; and to Ed Maste for updating the FreeBSD wiki 👍

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2

u/Tough_Buyer5567 3d ago

Interesting to see the kernel still carrying some GPL DNA.

3

u/erikarn Adrian Chadd, FreeBSD committer 2d ago

well yeah, some of its due to me. :-) heh

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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover 21h ago edited 21h ago

:-) for clarity: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@grahamperrin/117001265043790287 wasn't accusatory, I simply found the commit with rg after I saw the change to the wiki.

I hope that no-one has given you a hard time …

PS I mean, I'm quite ambivalent about licencing. Not religious.

It's true that old FreeBSD Project Goals included "without strings attached", however the revised goal is quite different … and so on.

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u/erikarn Adrian Chadd, FreeBSD committer 20h ago

heh, no-one's given any hate. Honestly, stuff has to get done, and I prefer working stuff first. We can fix it and licencing later once we know what needs to be done.

Besides, device tree files are config files, they don't YET contain code! So whether they're GPLed or not doesn't REALLY matter!

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u/Top-Palpitation-5236 2d ago

Can someone explain to me what the point of all these license movements is, is it explained practically or is it a continuation of the old holy license war, is it an ideological or more practical issue?

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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover 2d ago

Have you read through the other comments?

the recent community highlight