The FreeBSD-CURRENT codebase, which forms the basis for the FreeBSD 16 branch, has been updated to remove the last remaining GPL-licensed componentsāthe diff3 and dialog utilitiesāfrom the base system. diff3 has been replaced with a BSD-licensed version from the OpenBSD project, and bsddialog, a utility developed specifically for FreeBSD, replaces dialog. The installer was migrated to bsddialog four years ago, and the last remaining program relying on GNU dialog was dpv, which was deprecated over two years ago and has now been removed along with GNU dialog. The FreeBSD 16 release, scheduled for December 2027, will completely remove GPL-licensed code.
The primary motivation for FreeBSD's removal of GPL-licensed projects was the transition of GNU utilities to the GPLv3 license, which was deemed unacceptable for FreeBSD's core components. FreeBSD developers were forced to continue using outdated versions of GNU utilities released before the transition to GPLv3. In 2012, FreeBSD replaced the GNU patch utility with a BSD-licensed patch utility based on the work of the DragonFly BSD project. In subsequent years, the gdb debugger was removed from the system (replaced with lldb). The GNU grep utility was replaced with bsdgrep, the GCC compiler was replaced with Clang, and binutils utilities were replaced with equivalents from the LLVM project. The dtc (Device Tree Compiler) utility was replaced, and the amd automatic mounting process (replaced with autofs) and ctm utility were removed.
Source: opennet.ru
