For Approval: Open Source Software Alliance License

[Sean Chittenden]

> > Nokia's CheckPoint firewall (often considered the best firewall in
> > the industry) isn't based on Linux for a reason.
> 
> Doubtless, but the reason can't be the GPL license on the Linux
> kernel, since there is an explicit exception allowing people to run
> proprietary drivers with the kernel.

Nokia's lack of use of Linux has nothing to do with drivers, it has to
do with the extensive modifications they made to BSD's IP stack and
firewall software, which they redistribute as the product called
CheckPoint.  OSSAL, BSD, and MIT licenses operate under the notion of
"take what's existing, modify it in unique and interesting ways, and
leverage it to the best of your ability."  Writing something from
scratch is a silly waste of effort and pointless: OSSAL, BSD, and MIT
licenses give businesses or any developer a base to work from.

[snip]

> > It's useful if you're a business in that if you use OSSAL software
> > in a product, you're never going to have to go back and rewrite
> > that code that you depend on if the module author goes copyleft.
> 
> If a new version of the module is copyleft, you wouldn't be able to
> upgrade it, but the previous version would still be available under
> the BSD or the MIT or the AFL or whatever.

Which means duplicated work/effort, which is what the OSSAL aims to
prevent.  -sc

-- 
Sean Chittenden
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