BSD v. GPL, Jason Dixon, NYCBSDCon 2008

BSD vs GPL is a sweeping epic, focused on the dichotomy between good and evil. It peers inside the hearts and minds of the creators of these movements and dissects their battle for world domination. No common documentary will dare to follow the path that BSD vs GPL blazes. This presentation was given by Jason Dixon at the NYC BSD Conference at Columbia University on October 11, 2008

• Category

  Science & Technology

[himalde]

We need both. GPL keeps the code free, BSD give the users all freedoms. Let the author decide what freedom is most important to him.

[anticomuna]

This presentation was lame. In what planet working without being properly compensated is "capitalistic"? The BSD license allows companies just to take people's work without paying. I have no problem in sharing my programs with other developers, but if some company wants my work then they better pay me! BSD sucks!!

[Sepero1]

"more restrictions == less freedom"

President Lincoln should have watched this presentation! You can't be restricting my right to own slaves, because it gives me less freedom.

[klempie1980]

Thanks VIKI from I, Robot...

[rxantos]

Good presentation. pretty much sums it up.

Never understood why people would believe the you are more free by having more restrictions bullshit of the GPL.

[bobdole57]

and networking was what i was talking about, not content delivery which is a higher level abstraction on top of the internet.

[bobdole57]

Also, for clarification, Netflix uses Silverlight, a Microsoft codec/media technology. That is hardly an issue of networking protocols.

[bobdole57]

I'm pretty sure just about every TCP/IP stack out there, in Linux, Windows, OS X, Solaris, all the BSD's obviously are all based on either 4.3-Reno or OpenBSD code. The BSD license allows that. 

[lin545]

Which last mile do you refer to? TCP/IP is RFC 793, BSD had just one implementation of the stack. If everything is to the last mile standartized, why can't freebsd client use freebsd-served netflix content? And don't start discussion of microshit, please. It was by far not gaining popularity, rather than bribing and murdering.

"The fundamental protocols of the internet are all standard and all BSD."

BSD-part is wrong! There are only some IMPLEMENTATIONS that are published under BSD, GPL etc

[bobdole57]

Thats simply not true. Everything down to the last mile is all standardized, largely due to TCP/IP and BSD if you look at the history. The only thing that isn't is what file sharing protocol you're using at home which is only screwed due to the fact that home and office file sharing didn't really kick off until after Microsoft started gaining in popularity in the home. The fundamental protocols of the internet are all standard and all BSD. 

[lin545]

"TCP/IP would be a GNU clusterfuck right now"

"the internet would still be be a bunch of incompatible networks that people would be trying to glue together"

Get you facts straight, TCPIP has nothing to do with BSD (in fact BSD TCP/IP was stolen into windows - network without windows would be perfectly safe).

Network nowadays is very heterogenic and result why it is usable is due to people striving to glue it together based on various standartisations, which again have nothing with BSD.