Nexenta (Debian-based GNU/Solaris) launches

Nexenta (Debian-based GNU/Solaris) launches

Posted Nov 10, 2005 3:21 UTC (Thu) by josh (subscriber, #17465)
In reply to: Nexenta (Debian-based GNU/Solaris) launches by hazelsct
Parent article: Nexenta (Debian-based GNU/Solaris) launches

The Freeness of the CDDL is one issue. The far more relevant issue, however, is that the CDDL is not GPL-compatible, which means that Nexenta *may not* distribute GPL software (such as most of the Debian core packages) linked to the CDDLed Solaris libraries.

The fink project can distribute GPLed software for MacOSX because the fink project does not distribute OSX itself, and may thus take advantage of the exception for system libraries. The Nexenta project distributes GPLed software together with the CDDLed system libraries that it links together, which is not permitted. (This exception was designed for when a completely Free system did not exist, so that GNU software could be used to replace components of a proprietary system piece by piece, but proprietary vendors would not have an exception permitting them to distribute GPLed software linked to their proprietary libraries.)

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