--- title: FreeBSD's Kernel Still Has A Bit Of GPL Code While Its... description: FreeBSD's earlier announcement that it had removed all GPL code from its base system turns out to be only partially accurate. While the userland base is now... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/freebsd-s-kernel-still-has-a-bit-of-gpl-code-while-its-base-user-space-is-gpl-free-nam1vj0gm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: FreeBSD's Kernel Still Has A Bit Of GPL Code While Its Base User-Space Is GPL-Free | daily.dev og:description: FreeBSD's earlier announcement that it had removed all GPL code from its base system turns out to be only partially accurate. While the userland base is now... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/freebsd-s-kernel-still-has-a-bit-of-gpl-code-while-its-base-user-space-is-gpl-free-nam1vj0gm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NAm1vj0gm.png og:image:alt: FreeBSD's Kernel Still Has A Bit Of GPL Code While Its Base User-Space Is GPL-Free og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # FreeBSD's Kernel Still Has A Bit Of GPL Code While Its Base User-Space Is GPL-Free **[Phoronix](https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary FreeBSD's earlier announcement that it had removed all GPL code from its base system turns out to be only partially accurate. While the userland base is now GPL-free following the removal of the dialog utility, the FreeBSD kernel still contains some GPL-licensed code — including a header file copied from the Linux kernel for Qualcomm SoCs and certain Device Tree files licensed under GPLv2-only. The FreeBSD Wiki has been updated to reflect this distinction. Most other GPL-2.0 hits in the codebase are dual-licensed under BSD or GPL. The project hopes to work with original developers to get remaining code dual-licensed or find other paths to making the kernel fully GPL-free. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [FreeBSD 16 Retires The Last Of Its GPL Code From Its Base System](https://daily.dev/posts/freebsd-16-retires-the-last-of-its-gpl-code-from-its-base-system-wrumoorzx) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [FreeBSD Working On Intel FRED Support, Laptop Improvements Continue](https://daily.dev/posts/freebsd-working-on-intel-fred-support-laptop-improvements-continue-2gxixjemy) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A brief look at FreeBSD](https://daily.dev/posts/a-brief-look-at-freebsd-pw2mqvf3q) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [GhostBSD planning to ditch Xorg for XLibre](https://daily.dev/posts/ghostbsd-planning-to-ditch-xorg-for-xlibre-pdxyfmfcn) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/freebsd-s-kernel-still-has-a-bit-of-gpl-code-while-its-base-user-space-is-gpl-free-nam1vj0gm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"FreeBSD's Kernel Still Has A Bit Of GPL Code While Its Base User-Space Is GPL-Free","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/freebsd-s-kernel-still-has-a-bit-of-gpl-code-while-its-base-user-space-is-gpl-free-nam1vj0gm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/freebsd-s-kernel-still-has-a-bit-of-gpl-code-while-its-base-user-space-is-gpl-free-nam1vj0gm"},"datePublished":"2026-07-29T10:02:12.272Z","dateModified":"2026-07-29T10:03:20.598Z","description":"FreeBSD's earlier announcement that it had removed all GPL code from its base system turns out to be only partially accurate. 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