[nycbug-talk] Addendum, GPLv3 Problem (Was: Day 2, EuroBSDCon 2007 report)

[Isaac Levy]

Hi All,

This is an addendum to my reports from EuroBSDCon.

We went on a group trip to Legoland today, that was a total blast.

Photos from the conference are being centralized on Flikr, search  
with keyword "eurobsdcon2007".

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=eurobsdcon2007

Photos are slowly trickling in...

--
Which leads me to one important session I forgot- the "Project  
status" session.
PHK organized a great session here.  He took 1 representative from  
each project, and the audience could ask all of them a question-  
which would be answered by all of the projects respective  
representatives.  The lineup was:

FreeBSD: George Neville-Neil
OpenBSD: Claudio Jeker
NetBSD: Alistair Crooks
PC-BSD/Dragonfly: Sven Willenberger

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12884927@N07/1388399822/

With that, so the first question was EXTREMELY important, (much to  
the surprise of many)...

GPLv3, what is everyone doing about it?
So to recap the problem, the GPLv3 has some incredibly viral problems  
when including or using the software.  Worst-case implications are:  
everyone would need to rip out EVERY piece of GPL software, (this  
includes ports, and the GCC).

The ports problem is huge, Samba and to a lesser extent Bash being  
heavy setbacks- but there's many more...

The GCC problem is fundamentally more than huge, it's gargantuan.  We  
need a new, unencumbered, compiler- and this is non-trivial.

-
The answers went like this (paraphrased!!!):
1) FreeBSD, GNN said:
- Licences, this one in particular, needs Lawyers to deal with.  The  
FreeBSD foundation has hired lawyers, who are actively reviewing the  
situation now.
His attitude is just to 'keep coding' for now, and don't waste time  
dealing with things the lawyers will eventually need to take care of  
anyhow.
However, this has brought up the compiler issue... <cough>.  It's  
about time this core non-bsd component is addressed, right?

2) OpenBSD, Claudio said:
- "We will do what we need to do" as we continue, and have discussed  
the compiler situation at length.  There were some laughs and  
(constructive) hecklers regarding an OpenBSD being shipped without a  
compiler, (like removing Apache haha).

3) NetBSD, Alistair said:
- they also are aware of the situation, and have explored various  
compiler replacements- but have no solid answers.

4) Dragonfly/PC-BSD, Sven said:
- they also are aware of the situation, and have explored various  
compiler replacements- but have no solid answers.

Everyone agreed the lawyers are really necessary for dealing with  
GPL3, and everyone is clear and in agreement on the issues at hand.   
It seems there are some differences approach for replacing the GCC,  
and regarding Portage, all projects feel this is far to complex a  
problem to comment on now- (excepting OpenBSD, who outright will rip  
out any GPL port)

With that, it was great to see all the projects are on the same page-  
and that they're all aware and taking proactive steps to deal with  
this now...

--

That's it for this report,

I'm headed to the FreeBSD Dev. summit in the morning, somewhere out  
in the countryside...  Should be great.

That's it for now, see yall' back in NY late this week!

Rocket-
.ike