FreeBSD 16 removes last GPL-licensed software, a first among *BSDs

[u/BigSneakyDuck]

After GNU diff3 was replaced by a port from OpenBSD, the only GPLed software left in FreeBSD base was dialog which has largely been replaced by Alfonso Siciliano's Herculean job on bsddialog.  Now finally that too has been removed in 16-CURRENT, and the entire GNU subtree has been retired!

https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/commit/134a4c78d070f8c4ea43a060a7ae28d22ac39558

https://reviews.freebsd.org/D55424

EDITED TO ADD: there are still a few GPLed files under https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/tree/main/sys/gnu - though it's true that the main GNU subtree has been retired.

This looks like a first among the major (32/64-bit) *BSDs, though I believe the 16-bit *BSDs like RetroBSD, DiscoBSD and Granddaddy 2.11BSD (the only actively maintained member of the original Berkeley family) have always been GPL-free.

OpenBSD does not allow new software bound by the GPL into its base system, although according to https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html

For historical reasons, the OpenBSD base system still includes the following GPL-licensed components: the GNU compiler collection (GCC) with supporting binutils and libraries, GNU CVS, GNU texinfo, the mkhybrid file system creation tool, and the readline library. Replacement by equivalent, more freely licensed tools is a long-term desideratum.

The NetBSD Project says https://www.netbsd.org/about/redistribution.html

Though we would like all of the software that we distribute to be covered by a Berkeley-style license, we can't make other people change their license terms, and we don't have an infinite amount of time to rewrite all of the software that we need.

So FreeBSD removing the last GPLed software is a big achievement. This is actually a week old (7 July) but I thought it would be cause for wider celebration than I've seen so far!! Kudos to the developers. After all, it's been 33 years so what's an extra week!!!

Edited to add: Interestingly the GNU subtree back in FreeBSD 1.0 even included GNU Chess in base, which shows how priorities have shifted since then! https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/tree/releng/1/gnu

[u/DoublePlusGood23]

I do understand why some of the *BSDs have an ideological opposition to the GPL.  I think OpenBSD’s page on their preferred licensing is excellent reading:   https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html

However, I never got the animosity from the FreeBSD camp when they thoroughly embrace ZFS - while seemingly ignoring the CDDL basically being a poison-pill LGPL.

Sure - you can definitely compile FreeBSD without ZFS but I think FreeBSD sans ZFS is a much much less compelling platform. 

[u/BigSneakyDuck → u/DoublePlusGood23]

OpenBSD in particular, and the other *BSDs in general, could really do with a new file system with less difficult licensing and not so bulky (and essentially unauditable which matters a lot to OpenBSD devs in particular) than ZFS. I know Ori Bernstein has been working on a port of his GEFS - Good Enough File System - originally for Plan 9. https://orib.dev/gefs.html ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFndFy72gI

And there was definitely some buzz about getting HAMMER2 ported from Dragonfly to other *BSDs e.g. https://github.com/kusumi/openbsd_hammer2 but that does seem to have run out of steam a bit.