The *BSDs show clearly what would have happened, most hardware vendors that ship some BSD variant on their hardware don't contribute anything back.

That is simply not true. For instance iXsystems contributes back to FreeBSD snd also sponsors the foundation.

On the other hand a lot of WiFi router vendors violate the GPL by not releasing the code and contribute nothing back to Linux.

For every iXsystems (who are excellent Free Software citizens) you have many NetApp, EMC and Isilons, who use the FreeBSD code to build profitable products on and give nothing in return.

NetApp is a very good example, as they contribute NFS code back to Linux but not FreeBSD.

Why do you think that might be ?

>For every iXsystems (who are excellent Free Software citizens) you have many NetApp, EMC and Isilons, who use the FreeBSD code to build profitable products on and give nothing in return. NetApp is a very good example, as they contribute NFS code back to Linux but not FreeBSD.

Literally every company you mentioned contributes code to FreeBSD, so what are you even talking about[1][2][3]?

[1]: https://freshbsd.org/search?project=freebsd&q=netapp

[2]: https://freshbsd.org/search?project=freebsd&q=emc

[3]: https://freshbsd.org/search?project=freebsd&q=iXsystems

Oh great, FreeBSD has the WAFL filesystem now ! That's great news, I must have missed the release announcement ! Is it in the main repository ?

Hint, shitty little few line fixes != contributing back.

> Oh great, FreeBSD has the WAFL filesystem now ! That's great news, I must have missed the release announcement ! Is it in the main repository ? Hint, shitty little few line fixes != contributing back.

What a disingenuous response, Linux does not have the WAFL Filesystem and so why point out wether FreeBSD has it or not. Also NetAPP released Bhyve and EMC Isilon has made over 4000 commits to the FreeBSD tree, those are serious contributions regardless off what you say.

As a member of the Software Freedom Conservancy board you should seriously stop spreading Misinformation and being so dismissive of other FLOSS projects.

A more complete lie you could not have stated. Check the FreeBSD commit logs. All those vendors commit code back to the project. I see commits almost everyday from them. But thanks for spewing lies.

It's easier to hand out these alternative facts that support the GPL's mission.

most != all

And one counter-example isn't enough refutation.

not saying i believe either of you. just saying, language matters.

NetApp Juniper Sony Apple Panassas.... These all have commits to FreeBSD. When you use it, you do tend to collaborate with upstream a bit.

GPL enforcement of said wifi routers is the _only_ reason we have drivers for several wifi chipsets. Perhaps ironically, the BSDs benefited from this too.

Most of the people who are anti-GPL are either naive or want to profit off of someone else's code without contributing anything back.

For me, GPL doesn't go nearly far enough, and I licence everything I write under AGPL.

For several reasons I use mostly commercial commercial software, but everything I write outside work regardless of how useless it may be, is always released under GPL.

Saying that the only difference for these big projects is their license, seems quite a bit simplified.

How is the contribution process organized? How willing are the developers to incorporate foreign extensions?

There a quite a few factors that determine how such big projects work and at the end it's IMHO always the people involved that make the difference.