On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Andrew Basterfield wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Feb 2003 08:53:27 -0800 (PDT)
> Brian Chase <vaxzilla@jarai.org> wrote:

> > Now, I'm not quite familiar with all the history of the OpenBSD /
> > NetBSD split, but I'm under the impression that OpenBSD effectively
> > wholesale copied the then existing NetBSD tree and modified it to
> > their needs. Which is certainly /allowed/ under the BSD license, as
> > long as the proper attributions are retained.
>
> The NetBSD project did not create NetBSD from scratch. NetBSD came from
> 4.4BSD Lite. Code interchange between BSDs is not immoral, it is a good
> thing. There is a lot of code gone back into NetBSD from OpenBSD.

Yes, I understand this, and I've no problem with the practice of code
being shared back and forth between the BSDs.  The competition between
the various cults of personality behind each ultimately makes all of the
BSD trees better.  One of the things I like most about the *BSDs are how
they all dance with and around eachother.  Their similarities make for
easier sharing between them.  My concern was with my (incorrect)
perception of this very practice of sharing being stifled by OpenBSD.

> > And though I disagree with the reported wholesale search-and-replace
> > of copyright notices done by MicroBSD, that's clearly in violation of
> > the BSD license, it does seems like an easy enough problem to fix and
> > get back in compliance with the BSD licensing terms.  So why all the
> > fuss to shut them down?
>
> They shut down voluntarily. They broke the rules, they got a lot of bad
> publicity and their project lost credibility with the community, they
> pulled the plug.

Admittedly, I'd read a bit too much into the original posting.  I
thought that MicroBSD had been pressured or threatened to shut down.
Catching up on the details now, the reality seems to be that the *BSD
community responded appropriately to a group that violated the rules by
subsequently chastizing and abandoning their effort.  I think that if
they really had a different angle for their BSD offering, they should've
kept at it; perhaps they could "hibernate" for a while until people
forgave them a bit.

-brian.