[wellylug] Finally... OpenSolaris is on it's way

[Pete Black]

So, if a GPL'd Linux kernel 'poisons' the LGPL GNOME due to 
aggregation, does shipping a GPLed app with an OpenSolaris kernel  
'poison'  the CDDL - and if not, why not?

And exactly how is it 'legally unclear'? I don't understand how you 
could claim that bundling a separate LGPL package with a GPL package 
somehow forces the LGPL package to fall under the GPL.

I mean, when a vendor like Redhat ships Suns Java with a GPLed linux 
kernel, does Java now fall under the GPL?

And has the CDDL been 'tested in court'?

-Pete


On 27/01/2005, at 12:01 AM, Rob Giltrap wrote:

> Jamie Baddeley wrote:
>
>> That's great news Rob.
>>
>> In your opinion, what's the catch?
>>
>>
>> jamie
>>
> First of all the disclaimer: I do a lot of work for Sun so am not 
> entirely impartial ;-) However here's my independent take on it with a 
> little inside knowledge.
>
> Basically the catch (and it isn't so much a catch) is that there is a 
> different licensing model. The CDDL or "CuDDLe" as it is 
> affectionately called is a little more corporate friendly in that it 
> doesn't have what is sometimes called the GPL poisoning effect. This 
> means that there is much better clarity around taking the core source 
> and adding something. They have two definitions...
>
> 1) Covered Software - Which is the software specifically covered by 
> the CDDL
> 2) Larger Work - Which includes (in whole) the Covered Software plus 
> any additonal software that may be under a different license 
> (proprietary or other open source)
>
> So here is a comparision...
>
> Take Linux, it includes the Linux Kernel and a bunch system level 
> things which are licensed under the GPL, On top of the Linux Kernel et 
> al you have Gnome which is LGPL. It is legally unclear whether the 
> relationship between the GPL software means that the Gnome LGPL 
> software also becomes GPL. This is known to be ambiguous in the GPL 
> and has not been tested in court (as no-one has had the incentive to 
> do so as yet). This ambiguity is a risk and corporationsgenerally 
> don't like risk.
>
> Next take Solaris, it includes OpenSolaris (which is the kernel and a 
> bunch of other system level things these are released under the CDDL) 
> and also includes Gnome which sits on top of OpenSolaris and is 
> licensed under the LGPL. The CDDL is clear it stating that the CDDL 
> does not override the LGPL licensing. It also allows clarity for the 
> likes of IBM to offer DB2 on top of OpenSolaris under a proprietary 
> license with absolute clarity with regards to the different licensing 
> models sitting next to one another.
>
> There is a lot of VERY careful wording in the CDDL and essentially 
> compares well with the MPL & LGPL open source licenses. It also 
> carefully addresses the issues that caused forking of UNIX so that it 
> is unlikely to reoccur (which is one of the strengths of Linux)
>
> So there is no catch, it is just a little different from being pure 
> GPL. It is important to remember that Solaris & Linux today run X.org, 
> Gnome & OpenOffice amongst many other open source components. This 
> really just brings the Solaris kernel and other system level 
> components fully into the realm of OpenSource in line with the Linux 
> kernel components. So now you can say Linux, OpenSolaris & FreeBSD all 
> in the same breath.
>
> Now for those who are skeptical and think Sun is a big hungry 
> corporate wanting to make profits, you are absolutely right, and Sun 
> intends to make shed loads by going back to it's roots and assembling 
> innovative systems based on industry components. The difference now is 
> that systems are not just hardware and an OS, systems are now 
> hardware, OS, middle tier infrastructure, services and cost models. 
> Sun has got some awesome tech up it's sleeve, over the next 12 months 
> some heads are going to turn.
>
>
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