Ken Gunderson wrote:
> OpenSolaris the binary distribution is now a commercial product? I thought
> OpenSolaris SUPPORT was the commercial product, not the distribution itself.
> As far as I can recall, OpenSolaris the binary distribution has always been
> free. Might this portend another legalese sleight of hand, a subtle change
> in license, etc. that effectively removes OpenSolaris the binary distribution
> from free use, as we currently enjoy it, by the general public ??
>
> Not trying to put words in your mouth here Alan, but in absence of any clear
> guidance from Oracle, comments like that definitely raise an eyebrow, as,
> like many who've been around the block a time or two, personal experience
> leads me to tend to expect the worst form Oracle the company. The optimist
> in me would love to be wrong about this but damn if reality doesn't continue
> rearing it's ugly head...
I did not mean to indicate any change of policy about the cost or license
of the product, just that since it generates revenue for Oracle, even if only
indirectly via the selling of support contracts, it falls under Oracle's
policies for information about future products. Frankly, that it's a
commercial product is pretty much true for the OpenSolaris distro since the
very first release, and is not changed.
If the community had ever taken a bigger role in the production of the distro
you might have a stronger argument that it's an open source communtiy project,
but the bulk of the work on it was always done by Sun employees.
The only change is that the company producing it has much different rules on
public discussions of future releases than the previous company.
And though I expect everyone here should already know this, just to make it
absolutely clear:
*I AM NOT AN ORACLE SPOKESMAN. MY POSTS ARE NOT OFFICIAL STATEMENTS OF
ORACLE.*
I am posting here as a long time community member and leader who happens to
know a bit more about what's going on with the distro than most people, since
I've been part of the team building it for the past few years. If anyone makes
it difficult for me to post things like this, I can just stop - I'll be sad
if it comes to that, but it's not a required task for my job, and I can live
without the grief.
--
-Alan Coopersmith- [email protected]
Oracle Solaris Platform Engineering: X Window System
_______________________________________________
opensolaris-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
