Re: End of "Free" Solaris binary licence program - now it's free.

From: Peter C. Tribble (ptribble_at_hgmp.mrc.ac.uk)
Date: 02/20/05 

Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 10:15:04 +0000 (UTC)

In article <1108862696.909714@docbert>,
        Scott Howard <scott@hunterlink.net.au> writes:
> I R A Darth Aggie <hfrarg@nttvr2x3.pbgfr.arg> wrote:
>> I still haven't purchased my coat for the day hell freezes over, when
>> you can get Solaris source code.
>
> Ahh, so perhaps some of them have managed to remove their feet from their
> mouths.
>
>> I still can't lay my hands on the source of Open Solaris, can you? and
>
> Actually, I can, but that's a different story...

As can I, as can about 100 or so pilot members.

> OpenSolaris is happening - just it's something that will take time.
> There are a reasonable number of Solaris community members who do already
> have OpenSolaris source, and who even have working builds of it. eg
> http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=42

Works a treat!

>> don't point me to the Dtrace code. That's all fine and dandy, but it
>> ain't Solaris.
>
> Correct, and nobody ever claimed it was. It is however some code which
> we could easily release where we _knew_ there were no 3rd party licenses/
> patents/etc involved. It was offered as a tempter, and to show that we
> are serious about getting OpenSolaris out there just as quickly as we can!
>
>> And there's plenty of time for Scooter to change his mind. And if he
>> doesn't, so what? a year after you can get Solaris source, 95% of the
>> code work will be produced by SUNW engineers. IMHO, that is. May that
>> I be wrong.
>
> The ratio of internal:external code production isn't something that will
> be set by Sun - it's something which will be set by everyone else! Sun
> will still produce the same amount of code as we would have otherwise,
> how much the community produces will set the ratio...

But even I would expect that most of the code will be coming from Sun
for some time. After all, there are a reasonable number of Sun
engineers working full time on the code, who are familiar with the code
and its development practices, and who are actively developing
away. It's going to take a while for the rest of us to get up to
speed. That's not to say that we aren't working on it and trying to get
our code back in... 

-- 
-Peter Tribble
MRC Rosalind Franklin Centre for Genomics Research
http://www.rfcgr.mrc.ac.uk/~ptribble/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/
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