Linus on GPLv3 and ZFS

Posted Jun 12, 2007 19:06 UTC (Tue) by proski (subscriber, #104)
In reply to: Linus on GPLv3 and ZFS by arcticwolf
Parent article: Linus on GPLv3 and ZFS

We could also theorize that Linus is hinting at the possibility of switching Linux to GPLv3 to dissuade Sun from releasing ZFS under GPLv3.

But why would not Linus want ZFS in the kernel? The history of Linux shows that reimplemented code is more successful that ported code. XFS and JFS are rarely used, whereas ext2 and ext3 are wildly popular.

Patent issues: GPLv3 and ZFS

Posted Jun 12, 2007 19:30 UTC (Tue) by dwheeler (guest, #1216) [Link] (1 responses)

Patent issues. If Sun releases ZFS under GPLv3, ZFS is patented, and its patents on ZFS are valid, then anyone else using GPLv3 can use ZFS. They can even "bring in" the GPLv3 code and completely rewrite it, so the IMPLEMENTATION may be different but they'd still be okay legally (I think). Using GPLv2 wouldn't give them access to patents released only under GPLv3.

Patent issues: GPLv3 and ZFS

Posted Jun 12, 2007 20:01 UTC (Tue) by atai (subscriber, #10977) [Link]

One would expect Sun already considered this aspect already assuming Sun will release OpenSolaris under the GPL v3.

Linus on GPLv3 and ZFS

Posted Jun 13, 2007 1:48 UTC (Wed) by wolfrider (guest, #3105) [Link]

> JFS [is] rarely used

--Depends on who you ask. I use JFS now almost exclusively for Vmware and "bkps" (read: large) filesystems, where before I would use ReiserfsV3 with notail.

--After seeing how fast (and reliable) JFS is, I switched almost all my Reiser filesystems over to it - and have been much happier. Reiser is great for root and squid (tail-packing) but not ideal when you're trying to run a VM from a USB2 IDE drive. JFS makes it usable.