FreeBSD 16 Retires the Last of Its GPL Code from Its Base System

Post by bigstrat2003 » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 2:05 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #49

caminanteblanco wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copyleft has never been a hard requirement for free software. If anything I feel like it stands against the deeper philosophy of given no restrictions on usage to the end user. I understand that's not the RMS-take, but he's not the only voice in this community.

Moral opposition to proprietary software is a requirement though. It's what free software is all about. It's a question of values. > he's not the only voice in this community I'd say Stallman's opinion on free software is the only one that matters. He created it. He's essentially the only person extreme enough to make serious sacrifices just to live free of proprietary software. The dystopia he warned us about inches…

Post by Gud » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 4:07 AM UTC

riedel wrote: post #8

matheusmoreira wrote: post #2

Pretty sad from the free software movement's perspectice. Look how little leverage GNU's got these days. Then again, trying to contribute to GNU wasn't exactly a positive experience. Maybe it's for the best.

I am not really sure if I can follow. FreeBSD despite its title never had something to do with Free Software. BSD has a different history and it's "own licence". Being more consistent in its licence is a good thing particularly in contrast to Linux FreeBSD is a full distribution with user land. I would even think that you can without much problem publish a GPL version of FreeBSD if you like. I think you might have to…

Post by rzerowan » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 8:23 AM UTC

2lup382_ wrote: post #44

rzerowan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think GPL and copyleft in general is getting less and less relevant as time goes on. Looking at GPL specifically it relies on scarcity. The reason companies would agree to the terms of the GPL Therein is the great misunderstanding , the GPL was never written for 'companies' , it was and still is for the User. You, Me a $MEGACORP , sentinel islander - it does not matter the rights are granted to all equally to reus…

> Therein is the great misunderstanding , the GPL was never written for 'companies' , it was and still is for the User. I didn't say it was, but what it was written for and what it became since writing software has changed so radically are two different things. For example the kernel Linux used to be written primarily by hobbyist hackers, now it is in large part written by $MEGACORP. > When no one is contributing to…

Post by akimbostrawman » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 11:15 AM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #52

matheusmoreira wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moral opposition to proprietary software is a requirement though. It's what free software is all about. It's a question of values. > he's not the only voice in this community I'd say Stallman's opinion on free software is the only one that matters. He created it. He's essentially the only person extreme enough to make serious sacrifices just to live free of proprietary software. The dystopia he warned us about inches…

RMS may have coined free software as a term and legal construct via licensing but he wasn’t the first to give software away for free

Post by M95D » Thu, Jul 16, 2026, 1:35 PM UTC

close04 wrote: post #23

felixgallo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an example, I had a headless devuan instance that took an extra ~50s to ssh to today, repeatably. Checked to see if it was DNS -- wasn't DNS. Checked to see if it was misconfigured ssh -- wasn't misconfigured ssh. Eventually it turned out to be that /etc/pam.md/common-session was misconfigured by installation default to have 'pam_elogind.so' set up, which was trying to do some cockamamie dbus bullshit to communica…

Your 1 user issue is not proof of anything that follows, and most of the comment looks more like getting some frustration out in an aggressive and unpleasant manner. Just to be clear, you’re not entirely wrong. Linux is not about being simple and comprehensible anymore because that only serves a small subset of users. As the userbase grew, the needs and demands grew with it and so did the solution. But your problem i…