[wplug] Is XFree86 4.4 worth it?

[Jason Jerome]

license arguments seem to always be a topic in Open Source software.  

I'm not surprised that RH is looking into this.  They have always said
that they want to be totally GPL, which is why you can't get (by
default) xmms w/ mp3, xine, and mplayer.

I hardly ever follow the license talk about products, but I'm sure in
the long run that I will benefit from others having these debates.



--- Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com> wrote:
> Vanco, Don wrote:
> > Look at me!  Reporting on OpenBSD!  
> > 
> > Not really.  Pretty harsh words below - but RH has made a statment
> that they
> > too are "investigating" and will likely not support anything
> non-GPL.
> 
> This whole thing is pretty incredible.
> 
> Have any of you actually _read_ the new license?  I can't believe
> it's causing
> a stir.  The license is basically a BSD license (which has been
> considered a
> valid OSS license since the invention of the term) with the following
> specifics:
> The clauses that require due credit be given insist that such credit
> be located
> "in the same form and location as other such third-party
> acknowledgments."
> This doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
> 
> Personally, this won't change my use of X.
> 
> > ----- Forwarded message from Theo de Raadt
> <deraadt at cvs.openbsd.org> -----
> > 
> > From: Theo de Raadt <deraadt at cvs.openbsd.org>
> > 
> > Subject: XFree86 license
> > 
> > To: misc at openbsd.org
> > 
> > Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 14:27:47 -0700
> > 
> > Like other projects, we will not be incorporating new code from
> David Dawes
> > into the XFree86 codebase used in OpenBSD. All such changes have to
> be
> > skipped, rewritten, or you can contact the XFree86 group and place
> your own
> > efforts to repair this damage.
> > 
> > I've tried to negotiate with David Dawes, and show him that his new
> license
> > is not acceptable, and he has been hostile and it has gone nowhere.
> He keeps
> > insisting that his license is a standard BSD licenses, yet, he
> won't use the
> > same words that Berkeley used; if his words were intended to be
> compatible
> > to the Berkeley spirit then he would be happy to use the same
> words; but he
> > is not, and insists on different words which a lot of the community
> has
> > trouble with.
> > 
> > It seems like every 8 years or so we have to go through some period
> where
> > someone tries to take free software and makes it less free because
> they
> > don't feel they are getting enough credit.
> > 
> > This is final; if that license stands, there will be forking.
> > 
> > And if you don't like that, don't bother telling me. Tell them.
> > 
> > ----- End forwarded message -----
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > -----Original Message----- 
> > From: wplug-admin at wplug.org on behalf of Jonathan S Billings 
> > Sent: Mon 3/1/2004 10:25 AM 
> > To: wplug at wplug.org 
> > Cc: 
> > Subject: Re: [wplug] Is XFree86 4.4 worth it?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > I know I've heard that RMS has declared that the new XFree86
> license is
> > not GPL compatible, and that the debian folks are looking into it. 
> I
> > haven't read it, since most license politics gives me a headache. 
> > 
> > I know that this release will be very useful to me, since I support
> a
> > couple systems that have the Intel 845 chipset, which is kind of
> broken
> > in 4.3.  Most of the changes I see (listed here:
> > http://www.xfree86.org/4.4.0/RELNOTES2.html#2
> > <http://www.xfree86.org/4.4.0/RELNOTES2.html#2> ) aren't features
> that the
> > user might notice, if they were upgrading from an already-working X
> > server.
> > 
> > jonathan
> > 
> > On Sun, 2004-02-29 at 22:30, chris at thistlethwaite.net wrote:
> > 
> >>Is anyone excited about the new release of XFree86??  I
> >>was going to DL it today, but I wanted to see if anyone
> >>else tried it out.  I'm just not sure if its worth a
> >>couple hours on the phoneline.  Also, what's the deal
> >>with the new licensing?  Everyone is freaking out about
> >>it, I read through the changes and didn't see anything
> >>that would make me not use it.  There are a handfull of
> >>distros dropping 4.4 and just using 4.3.
> >>Thanks,
> >>Chris
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Bill Moran
> Potential Technologies
> http://www.potentialtech.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
> wplug mailing list
> wplug at wplug.org
> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug


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