When I first started working on the business side of open source software, it felt like I spent a lot of time convincing people that they couldn't just throw old code over the wall. I think people managing dying projects actually felt relief that there was something they could do with their old project that might keep a few loyal customers happy. I'd explain to them that if they weren't willing to maintain it, probably nobody else was and given the amount of work it takes to open source a project, they'd be much better off helping their loyal customers move to a better long term solution.

But then Jeremy Allison pointed out to me that sometimes there's really cool technology in old projects that can be used and leveraged in other projects if it's open sourced.

So I hope that HP's Tru64 UNIX Advanced File System (AdvFS) provides just that – cool technology that can be used and leveraged in Linux and other operating systems. HP's Tru64 customers have been long, loyal customers which speaks to good technology. Hopefully that technology will now enable Linux to work better and faster.