Bug#987013: Release goal proposal: Remove Berkeley DB
Hi Gerardo
On Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 10:30:08AM +0200, Gerardo Ballabio wrote:
> Bastian Blank wrote:
> > Berkeley DB was relicensed to AGPLv3 almost eight years ago.
> Sorry but I don't understand, why is that a problem?
> I believe the AGPL (you mean the GNU Affero General Public License,
> right?) is a free license. Is it not?
Yes, the AGPLv3 is a free license.
However the freeness is not the problem here. The problem is the AGPL,
it's extended source provisions, the incompatibility with the license of
existing software and also a bit "Oracle".
The AGPL was created for network services. It requires to provide the
source to anyone accessing it via network. So this is tailored for the
services themselves, not arbitrary libraries deep within the dependency
chain. There where a lot of discussions about this problems at the
time.[1]
So even if we would switch to a current version of Berkeley DB, we would
need to do the same work to make sure every software that uses it is in
compliance with the AGPL. AFAIK every distribution either stayed with
BDB 5.3 and often just removed it's use as much as possible or just
killed it alltogether.
Regards,
Bastian
[1]: https://lwn.net/Articles/557820/
--
If a man had a child who'd gone anti-social, killed perhaps, he'd still
tend to protect that child.
-- McCoy, "The Ultimate Computer", stardate 4731.3
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