5 ms·

Not only that. In past oracle lawyers have send huge bills to companies after someone in their IP range had used virtualbox guest editions (which is not free f

Not only that. In past oracle lawyers have send huge bills to companies after someone in their IP range had used virtualbox guest editions (which is not free for commercial use).

josephcsible 3y ago
> virtualbox guest editions (which is not free for commercial use) This is false. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ says: > the VirtualBox Guest Additions are licensed under the GPLv2. You might have been thinking of the VirtualBox Extension Pack, which is an entirely different thing.
- qwertox 3y ago
  But it's pretty hard not to use the Extension Pack.
  - londons_explore 3y ago
    I don't think I've ever needed an extension pack feature.
    - kramerger 3y ago
      You used to very much need it as it improved performance, display resolution and I/O significantly. Oracle could not milk VirtualBox for money so they used this as a way to extort unknowing commercial users.
  - cowsandmilk 3y ago
    How is it hard? It is a separate download and install.
    - thrawaway3292 3y ago
      Sure, but it's reasonable for most people to expect an extension they've downloaded from within the app itself might have similar licensing as the app itself. Even if it isn't reasonable to do so, I suspect most people do indeed do so, and that's exactly what Oracle is counting on.
      - josefx 3y ago
        > from within the app itself Where in the App does it download the extensions? I know it will download the Guest Additions for you, but those are something completely different.
  - josefx 3y ago
    How? It doesn't add any functionality relevant to most users and you have to download it separately from Virtual Box itself.
    - numpad0 3y ago
      It was required (at least used to) to use USB2.0/3.0, RDP compatibility, PCIe passthrough. I remember having to download that, so my guess is either I'm not typical user, or there are two different worlds with respect to how VBox is used. 1: https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/virtualbox/6.0/user/intro-installing.html https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/virtualbox/6.0/use...
      - stephenr 3y ago
        I think it's extremely uncommon for most people to need either rdp or PCIe passthrough, and I'd guess it's still quite uncommon (though more likely than the previous two) to need usb passthrough.
      - josefx 3y ago
        I have been using Virtual Box for years without needing any of those. When it finally came down to PCIe pass through to get better 3D support I moved to qemu/kvm, no one forced me to pirate Oracles software for that. Of course qemu/kvm can be an absolute shit show to configure, so I still default to Virtual Box.
lproven 3y ago
You are wrong. You are confusing the Guest Additions (free, FOSS, included in many distros) and the Extension Pack (commercial/proprietary, freeware for personal/non-commercial use.) I have had to explain this within the last fortnight; read that. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36679707 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36679707
- kramerger 3y ago
  Sorry, I did in fact mean extension pack. The FOSS one have not always been available/complete hence in past a lot of companies had no choice other than using the Oracle guest addition extension pack. Which resulted in situations like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/d1ttzp/oracle_is_going_after_companies_using_virtualbox/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/d1ttzp/oracle_is_...
  - lproven 3y ago
    No, you are still wrong. The Guest Additions are capital F Free. The Extension Pack is not. There is no such thing as "the Oracle guest addition extension pack." Never has been. You are conflating 2 totally different separate things, as is that Redditor.
    - kramerger 3y ago
      Extension Pack used to include the guest tools almost everyone needed. Exactly what it was called is not important. The point is that you needed it and Oracle later made it a torpedo cost.
      - lproven 3y ago
        [[Citation needed]] I think you are wrong. The Guest Additions (GAs) are not part of the Extension Pack (EP). As far as I can recall, after I think 15 years of using VirtualBox now, the GAs never were part of the EP. The GAs are FOSS. The EP is not FOSS. Since VirtualBox 4.0, released December 22, 2010, the core product has been FOSS and the proprietary bits were in the EP and only the EP. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/News_pre_4_3 https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/News_pre_4_3 VirtualBox 2 and 3 had separate freeware PUEL and Open Source editions (OSE), but that is back in the noughties. You are reaching back nearly 15 years here to get to when the product was not all-FOSS. I think you are confusing the names and the descriptions of the two totally separate add-ons, one of which is a proprietary addon to the hypervisor itself, and the other of which is a FOSS addon to the OS running inside the VM.

Not only that. In past oracle lawyers have send huge bills to companies after someone in their IP range had used virtualbox guest editions (which is not free for commercial use).

josephcsible 3y ago

> virtualbox guest editions (which is not free for commercial use) This is false. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ says: > the VirtualBox Guest Additions are licensed under the GPLv2. You might have been thinking of the VirtualBox Extension Pack, which is an entirely different thing.

qwertox 3y ago
But it's pretty hard not to use the Extension Pack.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  I don't think I've ever needed an extension pack feature.
  - kramerger 3y ago
    You used to very much need it as it improved performance, display resolution and I/O significantly. Oracle could not milk VirtualBox for money so they used this as a way to extort unknowing commercial users.
- cowsandmilk 3y ago
  How is it hard? It is a separate download and install.
  - thrawaway3292 3y ago
    Sure, but it's reasonable for most people to expect an extension they've downloaded from within the app itself might have similar licensing as the app itself. Even if it isn't reasonable to do so, I suspect most people do indeed do so, and that's exactly what Oracle is counting on.
    - josefx 3y ago
      > from within the app itself Where in the App does it download the extensions? I know it will download the Guest Additions for you, but those are something completely different.
- josefx 3y ago
  How? It doesn't add any functionality relevant to most users and you have to download it separately from Virtual Box itself.
  - numpad0 3y ago
    It was required (at least used to) to use USB2.0/3.0, RDP compatibility, PCIe passthrough. I remember having to download that, so my guess is either I'm not typical user, or there are two different worlds with respect to how VBox is used. 1: https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/virtualbox/6.0/user/intro-installing.html https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/virtualbox/6.0/use...
    - stephenr 3y ago
      I think it's extremely uncommon for most people to need either rdp or PCIe passthrough, and I'd guess it's still quite uncommon (though more likely than the previous two) to need usb passthrough.
    - josefx 3y ago
      I have been using Virtual Box for years without needing any of those. When it finally came down to PCIe pass through to get better 3D support I moved to qemu/kvm, no one forced me to pirate Oracles software for that. Of course qemu/kvm can be an absolute shit show to configure, so I still default to Virtual Box.

lproven 3y ago

You are wrong. You are confusing the Guest Additions (free, FOSS, included in many distros) and the Extension Pack (commercial/proprietary, freeware for personal/non-commercial use.) I have had to explain this within the last fortnight; read that. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36679707 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36679707

kramerger 3y ago
Sorry, I did in fact mean extension pack. The FOSS one have not always been available/complete hence in past a lot of companies had no choice other than using the Oracle guest addition extension pack. Which resulted in situations like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/d1ttzp/oracle_is_going_after_companies_using_virtualbox/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/d1ttzp/oracle_is_...
- lproven 3y ago
  No, you are still wrong. The Guest Additions are capital F Free. The Extension Pack is not. There is no such thing as "the Oracle guest addition extension pack." Never has been. You are conflating 2 totally different separate things, as is that Redditor.
  - kramerger 3y ago
    Extension Pack used to include the guest tools almost everyone needed. Exactly what it was called is not important. The point is that you needed it and Oracle later made it a torpedo cost.
    - lproven 3y ago
      [[Citation needed]] I think you are wrong. The Guest Additions (GAs) are not part of the Extension Pack (EP). As far as I can recall, after I think 15 years of using VirtualBox now, the GAs never were part of the EP. The GAs are FOSS. The EP is not FOSS. Since VirtualBox 4.0, released December 22, 2010, the core product has been FOSS and the proprietary bits were in the EP and only the EP. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/News_pre_4_3 https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/News_pre_4_3 VirtualBox 2 and 3 had separate freeware PUEL and Open Source editions (OSE), but that is back in the noughties. You are reaching back nearly 15 years here to get to when the product was not all-FOSS. I think you are confusing the names and the descriptions of the two totally separate add-ons, one of which is a proprietary addon to the hypervisor itself, and the other of which is a FOSS addon to the OS running inside the VM.