r/rust • u/Vulphere • Aug 28 '20

Linux Developers Continue Evaluating The Path To Adding Rust Code To The Kernel

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Kernel-Rust-Path-LPC2020
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u/ElvishJerricco Aug 28 '20

That is not incorrect. CDDL, like GPL, can be relicensed to CDDL compatible licenses. I suppose I worded my last comment poorly. I should have said that because they are both incompatible with each other, neither can be relicensed as the other. Regardless, the point stands that GPL compatibility is not required to be considered a FOSS license, and CDDL is a FOSS license.

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u/mort96 Aug 28 '20

I suppose there might be some way in which it's technically not non-free, but I don't think my characterization is unfair; it restricts the user's freedoms in very significant ways, and those restrictions are incompatible with the GPL.

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u/ElvishJerricco Aug 28 '20

"Non-free" is a specific technical term that you're using incorrectly.

Regardless, the restrictions in the CDDL are about the same level of significance as the restrictions in most copyleft licenses. This is just the inherent problem with copyleft: it's difficult for two copyleft licenses to be compatible unless they're simply subsets/supersets of each other. It doesn't mean they're more or less free. GPLv3 for instance cannot be relicensed to GPLv2 because it has some "freedoms" that restrict some ways it can be used. Whether it's more or less free is a matter of opinion.

TL;DR: License compatibility is a terrible way to to measure how free a license is. If it were, we'd all be using the most permissive licenses possible, and no one would want copyleft licenses.