Quoting Craig Sanders (cas@taz.net.au): [ZFS code and other parts of Solaris being under CDDL:]
which is a shame, because if it was there would be no licensing problem preventing it from being merged with the linux kernel.
BSD is compatible with GPL, CDDL isn't.
Sun did that deliberately so that GPL projects like linux couldn't use their code, negating most of the good will (and code contributions) they could have achieved from switching to an open source license.
I'm honestly not sure there wasn't a reason derived from Sun's relations with third-party stakeholders -- mostly because that was Netscape Communications's reason for crafting MPL to apply reciprocal obligation or not on a code-module by code-module basis. However, I think we're departing from the scope of luv-main, so I won't elaborate.
yeah, well, BSD license zealots are weird. they're perfectly OK with proprietary software taking their code but spit the dummy when a GPL project does the same ("it's not fair", they say). and even with LGPL and other weak copyleft licenses they think it's a matter of principle to refuse to use it.
Yeah, boy, I've sure seen this, and been mystified.