Whats so difficult about ISSU

Sun Nov 11 12:41:38 UTC 2012

> On (2012-11-11 08:50 +0900), Randy Bush wrote:
> > linux has become a fad in the vendor community.  it seems to lend
> > legitimacy to their products in some way, witness this discussion.
> > but linux has the gpl poison.  so, any code that they wish to keep
> > proprietary is in userland.
> 
> I've sometimes wondered why Linux is so common, and not FreeBSD. Is it
> easier to hire people if you use Linux? Or is GPL not really problematic
> issue, as you can hide your intellectual property in binary kernel modules?

Years ago, Linux was relatively immature and FreeBSD wasn't.  Vendors
like Juniper, NetApp, Apple, etc., took whatever suited them from 
FreeBSD, often ran it on x86, and went on their way.  The relatively
low legal bar presented little problem, as was intended.

Over the years, Linux was ported to more platforms, and has matured a
good bit, so now the "obvious" choice when someone was looking for a
cheap platform to build a residential CPE or NAT gateway or whatever
became Linux.  At the same time, large companies have poured lots of 
dollars and man-hours into Linux, and this has improved code quality
and maturity.  However, there are still legal issues relating to the
GPL.

If you're on supported CPU's, the BSD's are likely to be a better
choice if you want to avoid legal entanglements.  Otherwise, if you
don't mind code disclosure, Linux supports more platforms.  Both 
are relatively mature, feature-full operating systems when used for
embedded applications.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.