Newsforge Interview: Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:53 pm

http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/03/20/2050223
"Nvidia did not give anyone documentation. Instead, they expect people to load a gigantic blob of binary code into their kernel, and just be happy with that. Some Linux people in Germany reverse-engineered the driver years ago, but the rough story I heard is that Nvidia asked them to stop, and they did. This just astounds me!"

Interesting, and insightful interview, it's a good read, and I think Theo de Raadt makes some pretty darn good points in there.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 3:22 pm

Doesn't he ever get tired of slinging mud?

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 3:37 pm

Snarkout wrote:Doesn't he ever get tired of slinging mud?

You talking about me or Theo? Hehe

Well, like Richard Stallman, Theo has a very very strong opinion that he sticks to, and I think that even though both can sound a little weird sometimes, I think that a lot of what both of them say are correct, for example I agree with Theo on his issues of binary-only drivers, OK I will admit I use the NVIDIA graphics drivers, but I bought that graphics card before I switched to Linux and *BSD, because after that Windows Metafile "vulnerability" back in January, I've become even more hesistant to use closed-source drivers/software in general.

thetza · Post by **thetza** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:35 pm

If I add up everything we have ever gotten in exchange for our efforts with OpenSSH, it might amount to $1,000. This all came from individuals. For our work on OpenSSH, companies using OpenSSH have never given us a cent. What about companies that incorporate OpenSSH directly into their products, saving themselves millions of dollars? Companies such as Cisco, Sun, SGI, HP, IBM, Siemens, a raft of medium-sized firewall companies -- we have not received a cent. Or from Linux vendors? Not a cent.

this sums up basically why i think GPL/dual license model beats the BSD license. the openbsd project should give away GPL licensed copies of openssh and sell bsd licenses for a nominal fee, say US$10k per company who wants to use it in their proprietary wares; this could fund the project for a while.

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:08 am

thetza wrote:
If I add up everything we have ever gotten in exchange for our efforts with OpenSSH, it might amount to $1,000. This all came from individuals. For our work on OpenSSH, companies using OpenSSH have never given us a cent. What about companies that incorporate OpenSSH directly into their products, saving themselves millions of dollars? Companies such as Cisco, Sun, SGI, HP, IBM, Siemens, a raft of medium-sized firewall companies -- we have not received a cent. Or from Linux vendors? Not a cent.
this sums up basically why i think GPL/dual license model beats the BSD license. the openbsd project should give away GPL licensed copies of openssh and sell bsd licenses for a nominal fee, say US$10k per company who wants to use it in their proprietary wares; this could fund the project for a while.

If you read at the end of the interview, Theo states this: "Of course we did not set out to create OpenSSH for the money -- we purposely made it completely free so that the "telnet infrastructure" of the 1980s would die. But it sure is sad that none of these companies return even a fraction of value in kind."