Innotek makes virtualization software available as open source (Linux.com) [LWN.net]

Linux.com looks at Innotek's VirtualBox Open Source Edition. "Germany's InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH started out by supporting enterprises and financial institutions that were running IBM infrastructure. "As many of these enterprises were running outdated solutions such as OS/2, but cannot simply replace such huge infrastructures with the snap of a finger, virtualization was a natural solution to them," says Achim Hasenmueller, general manager of InnoTek. Hasenmueller adds that his company has been in the virtualization business for a long time and has also contributed substantial parts to what is now Microsoft Virtual PC. "Today we staff the largest group of virtualization experts in Europe," he says."

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Innotek makes virtualization software available as open source (Linux.com)

Posted Jan 17, 2007 13:35 UTC (Wed) by jfj (guest, #37917) [Link]

Just FYI, VirtualBox contains qemu. Since this is a static link of qemu and qemu is LGPL this is "work that uses the library" and falls under section 6 of LGPL which sais:

http://www.virtualbox.org/browser/trunk/src/recompiler/CO...

> You must give prominent notice with each copy of the work that the
> Library is used in it and that the Library and its use are covered by
> this License. You must supply a copy of this License. If the work
> during execution displays copyright notices, you must include the
> copyright notice for the Library among them, as well as a reference
> directing the user to the copy of this License. Also, you must do one
> of these things:

So, I'm just making sure qemu developers are properly creditted in a "CREDITS" section in the website. I mean, when you staff the largest group of virtualization experts in Europe, you can sure have the generocity to give proper credits.

Now, further looking at the source, VirtualBox includes dyngen.c which is GPLd, so they were obliged to release VirtualBox as GPL and all this time the company was in violation of the license. But now that VirtualBox is GPL, everybody's happy :)

Innotek makes virtualization software available as open source (Linux.com)

Posted Jan 17, 2007 14:11 UTC (Wed) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]

If this is so, then how can they provide the binary-only edition with special additional features? Are these features out-of-process or something?

Innotek makes virtualization software available as open source (Linux.com)

Posted Jan 19, 2007 15:24 UTC (Fri) by djmutex (subscriber, #12657) [Link]

VirtualBox does not include dyngen.c. The code contained in that file is only built and executed during the VirtualBox build process. This generates output code via GCC, which then becomes the recompiler. For the same reason that code generated by GCC does not automatically become GPL code, the code generated by dyngen.c does not automatically become GPL code. In any case, the code in dyngen.c is _not_ shipped in the VirtualBox binary.

Also, there are credits aplenty. The websites mentions in several places that VirtualBox contains parts of QEMU. Like, here:

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Developer_FAQ: "Q: How does VirtualBox relate to QEMU? I have seen some source files that appear to be related to his project."

Then here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_architecture, which even explains thoroughly exactly for what situations VirtualBox uses QEMU.

Then, the user manual (http://www.virtualbox.org/download/UserManual.pdf) has a huge Credits section which lists every little piece of code from other projects, even where this isn't a legal requirement, it seems.

I don't quite understand why, instead of examining what the product actually offers (which is a lot, much of which was not previously available as open source), some people prefer to (wrongly) accuse contributors of license violations first.

Innotek makes virtualization software available as open source (Linux.com)

Posted Jan 20, 2007 19:03 UTC (Sat) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

Comes with the territory, djmutex. Don't let it shake you. There is a very vocal minority of people that seem to feed on licensing accusations and insults. At times they can get shrill enough to make you think that the temple walls are about to fall (thankfully, that wasn't the case here).

Like a 5 year old, once they've had their fuss, they tend to be very nice, friendly people again. Bruce Perens is a perfect example but there are others.

So, welcome to free software. It's very rewarding as long as you don't take anything too personally.

Innotek makes virtualization software available as open source (Linux.com)

Posted Jan 20, 2007 23:43 UTC (Sat) by rbh00 (subscriber, #9632) [Link]

DANGER DANGER DANGER

I downloaded and installed from virtualbox.org and on top of it I installed Windows XP, on my FC5 system, and it was nothing short of amazing! The functionality and maturity appear to be the equal of VMware and even slightly better!

But DANGER DANGER DANGER the installation script contains a "rm -rf `dirname $0` which it can be plainly seen could WIPE OUT YOUR ROOT DIRECTORY!! I was talking someone on irc.freenode.net through the installation and we happened upon this GHASTLY possibility! So BEWARE! I'm going to try emailing this concern to the folks in Germany, but I thought I'd shout out here first.

Richard