On Feb 16, 2004, at 4:51 PM, adunn@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hello all,
I hope that this isn't going to start the sort of flamefest that I've seen elsewhere, but I'm going to take my chances.
I've read that the XFree86 license is changing as of version 4.4
(http://www.xfree86.org/pipermail/forum/2004-January/001892.html). In
fact, there's quite a brouhaha growing over on Slashdot about it because
Mandrake has elected to revert from version 4.4 back to 4.3. Now, I see
that FC2 RC1 has Xfree86 4.3. Does the license change mean that version
4.3 is as far as we go (at least until the license reverts back to a
FSF-approved one)? Is this just a tempest in a teapot? To me, it seems
as though the license just adds a few more lines of text to the
distribution's documentation.
Theo DeRaadt has already informed OpenBSD users that if the license does not change, that XFree86 will be forked (as far as OpenBSD is concerned). Theo isn't one to take licensing issues lightly; they already replaced IPFilter with PF, a seemingly irreplaceable part of earlier OpenBSD releases. PF is now widely recognized as superior to IPFilter in all possible facets.
One can only hope something positive comes out of all this.
-- Jason Dixon, RHCE DixonGroup Consulting http://www.dixongroup.net
