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by geofft 3488 days ago
> 2. Why can't Linux vendors ship source code to be compiled on clients computers, so no distribution (forgot the legal term) takes place?

For ZFS, they do. Debian's legal advisors say that shipping it as a DKMS module (i.e., as you describe) is fine, so they do that.

https://bits.debian.org/2016/05/what-does-it-mean-that-zfs-i...

https://packages.debian.org/jessie-backports/zfs-dkms

Ubuntu's legal advisors say that shipping the compiled module is fine, so they ship that.

https://insights.ubuntu.com/2016/02/18/zfs-licensing-and-lin...

DTrace is rather more closely coupled to the kernel than a filesystem, and there are good Linux-native alternatives now.

http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2016-10-27/dtrace-for-linux...