2012-01-18, 09:17 AM
2013-05-20, 07:36 AM
http://www.suacommunity.com/faqs.aspx#nine
9.04 MYTH - Interix / SUA is FSF/GNU based
This was a myth started by people who made assumptions, didn't know any better or were trying to FUD.
Interix (SFU or SUA) can be grouped into two parts: the subsystem (aka The Jewels) and the Commands, Utilities and Libraries (aka CUL). The subsystem consists of several programs and libraries that do "system work". The work was started by Microsoft in NT 3.X and then expanded/changed very significantly by Softway Systems in the 90's as OpenNT and then Interix. Microsoft bought Softway Systems in 1999 and then added some more functionality. The code has always been private and is not based on anyone's code other than Microsoft and Softway Systems. The CUL was created by Softway Systems based on the 4.4 BSD release from UCB/CSRG. None of these utilities or libraries were based on FSF/GNU code. Everything was 4.4 BSD based plus a couple of 100% Softway Systems utilities from OpenNT 1.0. At release 2.1 about 5 GNU utilities were added (diff is an example) to the 345 others. A pretty small addition. With Interix 2.2 gcc and friends were added for compiler and debugging support. All of GNU sources have been made available by Softway Systems and Microsoft. The GPL or LGPL causes no requirements on users of these shipped utilities. Microsoft (and before that Softway Systems) shipped no libraries with GPL or LGPL licencing. That means programers wanting to not link with GPL/LGPL libraries are fine on Interix as it ships from Microsoft.
Updates to CUL has happened over the years and the number of FSF/GNU programs have been reduced by replacing them with newer BSD utilities. Code use objectives for the Microsoft CUL (and here at SUA Community too) has been to use BSD or MIT licencing.
It can be stated that Interix has a strong BSD base and influence.
9.04 MYTH - Interix / SUA is FSF/GNU based
This was a myth started by people who made assumptions, didn't know any better or were trying to FUD.
Interix (SFU or SUA) can be grouped into two parts: the subsystem (aka The Jewels) and the Commands, Utilities and Libraries (aka CUL). The subsystem consists of several programs and libraries that do "system work". The work was started by Microsoft in NT 3.X and then expanded/changed very significantly by Softway Systems in the 90's as OpenNT and then Interix. Microsoft bought Softway Systems in 1999 and then added some more functionality. The code has always been private and is not based on anyone's code other than Microsoft and Softway Systems. The CUL was created by Softway Systems based on the 4.4 BSD release from UCB/CSRG. None of these utilities or libraries were based on FSF/GNU code. Everything was 4.4 BSD based plus a couple of 100% Softway Systems utilities from OpenNT 1.0. At release 2.1 about 5 GNU utilities were added (diff is an example) to the 345 others. A pretty small addition. With Interix 2.2 gcc and friends were added for compiler and debugging support. All of GNU sources have been made available by Softway Systems and Microsoft. The GPL or LGPL causes no requirements on users of these shipped utilities. Microsoft (and before that Softway Systems) shipped no libraries with GPL or LGPL licencing. That means programers wanting to not link with GPL/LGPL libraries are fine on Interix as it ships from Microsoft.
Updates to CUL has happened over the years and the number of FSF/GNU programs have been reduced by replacing them with newer BSD utilities. Code use objectives for the Microsoft CUL (and here at SUA Community too) has been to use BSD or MIT licencing.
It can be stated that Interix has a strong BSD base and influence.