Hi-
	Most of you probably don't even know me since I'm fairly quiet
these days (something of a NetBSD voyeur :-) but I've had an interest
in this effort for quite a while.  I didn't really feel qualified to
comment (and still don't) but Theo claims that since I donated some Sun
hardware a long time ago, I've got enough of an interest that it's OK
for me to say something.

	I haven't really followed all the "you said he said" mail
either, I'm not interested in the petty politics.  Politics are a large
part of why I'm not very active in the *BSD free software efforts.  I
just don't do politics since doing it for a living at Sun almost put me
in the funny farm (I'm quite serious about that).

	What I am interested in is Theo's talent.  He seems to have
quite a bit - more than most people.  I could be wrong, I'm just
watching from the sidelines, but it seems to me that he has done a
bunch of work in NetBSD on the sun4c, sun4, SCSI, frame buffers, serial
framework, and sun4m efforts.  No small amount of work for someone that
purports to be doing it "just for fun".

	I'd sure like to harness that talent for my own uses.  Those
who have followed my career have watched me go from a SunOS/*BSD bigot
to a Linux bigot.  The reason: the Linux code is copyrighted such that
no one may ever take it away from me - no bloody stupid CEO (no
reference to McNealy, no, none at all :-), no manager, no business
dweeb, nobody.

	A good point is: why would you want the Linux code - it's so
messed up who can use it?  And my answer is - yes, it is a bit messy,
but it works well enough for my uses and I hope that in time it will
surpass *BSD and SunOS 4.x in terms of quality, performance, and
stability.  It's a lot closer now than it was a a year ago.  Contrast
that with Sun's efforts - they seem to be going backward (still).  So I
hold out hope that Linux will one day be cool stuff from all of our
(kernel hacker's) points of view.

	I had a long phone conversation with Theo and it came out that
the work he has done is his copyright.  A little known fact is that the
owner of a work may release it under as many different copyrights as
s/he wishes.  A useful fact.  Nothing prevents Theo from releasing all
of his work under the GNU GPL.

	My point is this (sorry it took so long):  Theo has a lot of
talent.  His contributions should certainly earn him a high ranking
position in the NetBSD world.  If the NetBSD world doesn't want him
there, I'd love to see him move over to the Linux world - we all know
how much Linux would benefit from someone of Theo's talent.  

	I am doing, and will continue, to do everything in my power, as
a person and as an SGI representative, to convince Theo to contribute
to the growing Linux effort.  I think his SPARC work could slide into
the Linux effort quickly.  I think that the combination of his talent
and my insider knowledge could substantially accelerate the Linux/MIPS
port.  I'm quite excited by the prospect.  And I'm tickled pink at the
thought that *BSD internal politics may turn into a coup for the Linux
effort.  It's been my point all along that politics are the downfall of
any OS effort.  If the NetBSD powers that be can't see that, their loss
may well be Linux' gain.

Peace,

Larry McVoy