FreeBSD's Kernel Still Has A Bit Of GPL Code While Its Base User-Space Is GPL-Free

A few weeks ago there was excitement in the FreeBSD camp with FreeBSD 16 set to retire the last of its GPL code from the base system. While the retiring of the dialog code proclaimed that it was the last remaining piece of GPL software in the base system for FreeBSD, it turns out now that there is some GPL code within the FreeBSD kernel.

The FreeBSD Wiki page was recently updated from its "Mission accomplished!" announcement to now clarify that the FreeBSD userland is free from any GPL code in its base system.

The issue at hand is that there still is some GPL code within the FreeBSD kernel and thus its entire base is not free of GPL code, just the userland base portion. There is some GPL code in the FreeBSD kernel such as this header file copied over from the Linux kernel for Qualcomm SoCs. There is also other Device Tree bits that are GPLv2 only. Most other GPL-2.0 hits are at least code that's dual licensed for both BSD or GPL.

Hopefully in time they can work with the original developers to get the code dual licensed or other avenues for making the FreeBSD kernel properly GPL-free.