GNU/Solaris - When the fun begins...

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"And don't get me wrong:," he wrote on the Linux kernel mailing lists, "I think a truly open-source GPLv3 Solaris would be a really good thing, even if it does end up being a one-way street as far as code is concerned!"

Nobody is under any illusions that Sun wants to surrender its hold on Solaris, or the place that Solaris holds in the market. Paradoxically, Sun may be more unlikely to achieve these aims unless it is uncompromising, and releases the software under the GPL. Schwartz has thrown the ball in the air. He may run off it with it and refuse to play, but we can hope that this isn't true.

Torvalds says that Linux should be permissive, and should not carry DRM and patent restrictions, and should remain under the GPL v2. Stallman says that GNU/Linux should remain true to the ideals that allowed it to come into being, and move to the GPL v3. History has shown that the two positions are not as contradictory as they might at first appear.

The same arguments may be heard again in several years time when the Free Software Foundation announces the imminent release of GPLv4, and the GNU/Solaris developers argue about the wisdom of adopting a new, more radical, license, which tackles the issues of changing times and new impediments to the continuing freedom of software that we have not yet foreseen. By that time, a certain company in Redmond may be rushing to release the latest version of GNU/Windows under the GPLv4. Or maybe not.

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