Sun's use of GPL and/or debian source

[Alan DuBoff]

Recentely I was working a short contract for a client using Solaris x86. They
had me setup a Linux system to compare against. While doing so I noticed that
Sun now ships a Companion CD with various GPL tools that install in /opt/sfw/
on a Solaris system (x86 or SPARC).

Something I noticed that was kinda odd was that there was debian directories
within the /opt/sfw/src/ directories where all of the source code was.

This got me to thinking about what implications there would be for Sun to do
such a thing, and they are obviously within the restrictions of the GPL to do
so, as they are providing the source changes that they made, but it seems
wrong.

They obviously started from the debian source for at least some of those
tools, but not all of them had a debian directory in them, only some.

Even though they are probably within their restrictions of the GPL code, it
seems like they're raping debian for the use of their source for their
proprietary OS. The Companion CD doesn't install by default and the user needs
to install it seperately, and Sun's changes seem to only reflect the renaming
of the programs, from tar to gtar, locate to glocate, etc...presumably to
designate between GNU and SYSVR4.

Comments anyone? Maybe a question for the Geek Law man whose column I've seen
in the back of Linux Journal recentely.

-- 

Alan DuBoff
Software Orchestration, Inc.