that’s whacked

cuddle up with CDDL

Friday, Jan 28. 2005  –  Category: Sun

GROKLAW’s analysis of CDDL

Thus, there are strong grounds for concern that Solaris contains Windows interoperability code licensed from Microsoft, raising the possibility that Microsoft may at some point exercise its intellectual property rights to block further implementation of Open Solaris.

Hrm. I must first preface this blog entry with a very explicit “these are my own personal thoughts, and have nothing to do with the fact that I work at Sun”. If anyone misquotes me here, may the curse of a thousand violent cudgel-wielding monkeys befall you.

Honestly, I have these same concerns. I’ve been a fan of open source for a long time, and an employee at Sun for a relatively short time. That being said, I’m ecstatic that Sun is jumping into the deep end of the pool with the whole OpenSolaris effort (disclaimer: I’m working on the OpenSolaris project right now, read into that however much you want).

I want OpenSolaris to succeed as much as, if not more, than anyone else. I want so desperately to be able to turn to my Linux and BSD friends and convince them of the goodness that is OpenSolaris. That being said, I think the biggest problem with open source is the polarisation of the community. There are just too many damn licenses out there. BSD, GPL, MPL, EPL, CDDL, etc. We’re creating all these cliques of open source license followers. It’s like we’re building an open source community, and then putting in HUUUUGE fences to partition it up.

“Come on over and play with me! But if you play with me, I must demand that you not play with anyone else!”

People are dissing the CDDL for this reason. To be fair, it’s not CDDL’s fault. The GPL is just as guilty of this exclusivity, it’s just that the GPL was first - and it happens to be the darling of all the blind Linux followers on /. who worship the ground Linus Torvalds walks on. Honestly, I’d be happiest if everyone just licensed their stuff under the BSD license.

All that said, however…. in the end, I’m paid to be an engineer. Likewise, the people at Red Hat are paid to code, the people at IBM are paid to code, etc. etc. our salaries come from our companies, and our companies make their money off products. Is it selfish of Sun to force exclusivity with the CDDL? Yes. Is it wrong to be selfish and look out for yourself? No. I don’t think it is. It’s fine if you’re an individual contributor to the open source world - GPL that code, toss it out there for the good of mankind, and don’t worry about it — because you’re not expected to answer to the public… to the board… and to the shareholders. As a corporation, we are.

Would I rather that our code be given out freely to all who want it? Sure, the idealist in me wants that. But the part of me that sees a direct deposit every two weeks wants to see SUNW succeed, and if that means having to build another community to support a license in order to protect our interests: then so be it. I can deal with that.

I really truly do believe that Solaris 10 is the best operating system out there. Let the technology speak for itself. If the technology is good enough, then a community can be built, TRUE technology enthusiasts will flock to it. I don’t want the /. lamers who bitch and whine and have nothing of worth to contribute to join our community. I DO want the innovative, brilliant engineers (who also do hang out on /., to its credit) to join our community. It’s darwinism, baby. The strong will survive… and I do think S10 is the strongest OS out there.