Re: licensing

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003, Jeff Kinz wrote:

> The Linux Kernel versus the BSD kernel.  Linux is far more widespread,
> has been ported to more hardware platforms, is supported by more
> independent developers, is supported by many, many times more commercial
> companies, and is for more widely and numerously distributed than the
> BSD kernel.  Were talking orders of magnitude.

Point me to a list that shows that Linux has been ported to more platforms
than *BSD. From my last count, NetBSD supports over 55 different hardware
platforms (and many of the individual NetBSD ports support multiple
architectures too).

Also, I don't know of any lists or research showing that Linux is
supported by more independent developers, commercial companies, or more
widely distributed.

That would be a great survey idea.

Many companies, like F5 Networks, Nokia, IBM, Erickson, GNAT, Apple,
Microsoft (including recent Services for Unix), Juniper, Procom, Quantum,
First Intelligent Array, American Megatrends, DataHive Networking,
Zetta Systems, and Sun, have products based on BSD.

It is truly hard to measure who uses BSD, because companies can build
products based on it without giving back.

BSD has helped create many paying jobs. It would be interesting to have a
survey researching how professional developers have had employment or lost
employment based on the open source they use.

It is true that Linux gets more media attention and I am sure Linux is
used by more end-users. I don't think this is related to the exact license
itself.

(I do happily use Linux too.)

   Jeremy C. Reed

   http://www.reedmedia.net/