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[20050609]
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More BSD code: IBM's Slimline Open Firmware (Updated)
The software may not be to thrilling: IBM has released a
bootloader for PowerPCs based on the IEEE-1275 (Open Firmware)
standard. While they've
lost their biggest customer,
it may help others ;).
The more interesting thing here is that the code is released
under a "liberal Open Source Software (OSS) license", which looks
remarkably like a 3-clause BSD license.
This is the 2nd big company who has discovered the BSD license
recently, after AOL.
Of course a bootloader is no
enduser software, and companies like Brocade may well customize the
software without being forced to open up changes, so this is
definitely a favour to such companies, and an example how Open
Source can be made business-fiendly.
But with IBM aiming for Linux and GPL-based software so far, do
we see a chance in thinking here?
[Tags: ibm, licensing]
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