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Oracle doesn't need and probably doesn't want it to be shipped by Linus. They just need to license it under the GPL and convert it to the Linux filesystem API.
by briansmith 17y ago
Oracle doesn't need and probably doesn't want it to be shipped by Linus. They just need to license it under the GPL and convert it to the Linux filesystem API. Then they can ship their own Oracle Unbreakable Linux with ZFS. They don't need to send in patches to integrate it into the kernel officially. Oracle can maintain its own private source control for the ZFS kernel module, refuse any third-party contributions, and put tarballs on OTN when they actually ship releases. Officially it would be GPL'd but practically it would be useless to any vendor except them and their partners (RedHat).
- blasdel 17y agoThey'd spend quite a bit of their social capital with the Linux community if they tried to be private that way. I've also heard rumblings that a primary motivator behind the CDDL (and GPL incompatibility) was a core group of old Solaris devs at Sun that would have been royally pissed off if their work was GPLed. I wonder if Oracle would care if they quit en masse.
- briansmith 17y agoI don't think Oracle really believes there's value in "social capital". To the contrary, they seem to thrive on the fact that almost everybody despises them a little bit. If people were happy to do business with Oracle then Oracle would feel like they weren't charging enough.