
Ask HN: What if Linux and FreeBSD had the same license? - mikece
It&#x27;s my understanding that Linux users are opposed to software that isn&#x27;t compatible with GNU; what if Free&#x2F;Net&#x2F;OpenBSD and Linux all used the same license: would support and use of Linux and *BSD be the same or is there more to it than just the politics and religion of licensing?
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I think the vast majority of Linux users don't know, and further, don't care
about the licensing differences between the GNU licences and the various
n-clause BSD licences.

For those that do know and do care, I think there's very few who would refuse
to use BSD-licensed software. From a GNU-perspective, the BSD/MIT-style
licence is misguided, but not reprehensible.

But to the core of your question: yes -- there is more to the choice between
Linux and the BSDs than licensing.

FreeBSD, perhaps most of all, is a linear descendant of the original Bell Labs
Unix. And it maintains a style of development that emphasizes consistency,
elegance, and a smallish core group of like minds curating the system. That
style is true of all(?) the BSDs, with some different emphasis in each camp.

The Linux kernel, OTOH, was originally written by a gifted but inexperienced
student, attempting to get a work-alike of Minix that took advantage of the
i386's new features. It was a quick hack, put together over a few months, to
get something running that proved it could be done. The kernel was paired with
userland applications from the GNU project, from the general community of
"source available" software at that time, and massaged into the mostly novel
concept of distributions by many and varied groups of people, often with only
distant relationships with the kernel developers.

Over time, the skill and experience levels of the Linux kernel developers has
matured, but it maintains a (much) more broad range of skills, aptitudes,
experience, goals, etc, than the BSDs.

Which is not to say that either of the Linux kernel or the BSD kernel(s) is
"better". They have different strengths and weaknesses, as do their userland
ecosystems.

It's all __far __more important than the licensing differences.

My view, YMMV, etc.

