Jörg Schilling
Encyclopedia
Jörg Schilling is a computer programmer who has worked extensively on compact disc burning software, the Solaris Operating System
and the OpenSolaris
project. He studied originally as an electrical engineer at the Technical University of Berlin
. He is currently employed by the Fraunhofer Institute
for Fraunhofer Institute Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) in Berlin, where his main project was the BerliOS
open source web site, announced to shut down at end of 2011.
Schilling has supported open source for a long time. In 1982, he started the first free
tar
implementation. He currently maintains a feature-rich POSIX-compliant tar program called star. His work over many years on CD burning software culminated in the cdrtools
package, which includes cdrecord and the ancillary programs mkisofs and cdda2wav. This package supports most CD/DVD/Blu-ray recorders and runs on most operating systems.
His point of view and interpretation of legal and licensing issues including copyright law, as posted on many mailing lists, are controversial, as are the decisions made by some software distributors in response to changes in the licensing of his software. One of the most prominent of these controversies was the decision by Debian
(and subsequently several other major Linux distributions) to remove cdrecord and replace it with a GPL fork called Cdrkit due to alleged licensing issues
He was elected to the OpenSolaris Governing Board for the 2010-2011 term, however during this term the new owner of Solaris (Oracle Corporation
) discontinued the community support and the OGB with Jörg Schilling collectively resigned.
Solaris Operating System
Solaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
and the OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris was an open source computer operating system based on Solaris created by Sun Microsystems. It was also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around the software...
project. He studied originally as an electrical engineer at the Technical University of Berlin
Technical University of Berlin
The Technische Universität Berlin is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. Translating the name into English is discouraged by the university, however paraphrasing as Berlin Institute of Technology is recommended by the university if necessary .The TU Berlin was founded...
. He is currently employed by the Fraunhofer Institute
Fraunhofer Society
The Fraunhofer Society is a German research organization with 60 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science . It employs around 18,000, mainly scientists and engineers, with an annual research budget of about €1.65 billion...
for Fraunhofer Institute Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) in Berlin, where his main project was the BerliOS
BerliOS
BerliOS is a project founded by FOKUS, a Fraunhofer Institute located in Berlin, to coordinate the different interest groups in the field of open source software and to assume a neutral coordinator function...
open source web site, announced to shut down at end of 2011.
Schilling has supported open source for a long time. In 1982, he started the first free
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
tar
Tar (file format)
In computing, tar is both a file format and the name of a program used to handle such files...
implementation. He currently maintains a feature-rich POSIX-compliant tar program called star. His work over many years on CD burning software culminated in the cdrtools
Cdrtools
cdrtools is a collection of independent projects of free software/open source computer programs, created by Jörg Schilling and others under the GNU General Public License ....
package, which includes cdrecord and the ancillary programs mkisofs and cdda2wav. This package supports most CD/DVD/Blu-ray recorders and runs on most operating systems.
His point of view and interpretation of legal and licensing issues including copyright law, as posted on many mailing lists, are controversial, as are the decisions made by some software distributors in response to changes in the licensing of his software. One of the most prominent of these controversies was the decision by Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
(and subsequently several other major Linux distributions) to remove cdrecord and replace it with a GPL fork called Cdrkit due to alleged licensing issues
He was elected to the OpenSolaris Governing Board for the 2010-2011 term, however during this term the new owner of Solaris (Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
) discontinued the community support and the OGB with Jörg Schilling collectively resigned.