BSD is currently considered completely legal and free, from my understanding. If having something for free is all people care about, why they can't use it instead of all these questionable foreign clones I'll never understand.
Yes and it had to go through a legal battle to get that status. It was found to be an acceptable derivation.
why they can't use it instead of all these questionable foreign clones I'll never understand.
Because supporting capitalism and consumer choice might sometimes mean people make choice with which you are not comfortable. I use Linux because it has a better application base than BSD and is the recommended platform for Oracle, and other apps I use. I have to buy expensive hardware for apple (though they are getting better), and SUN will have to understand that their indecisiveness in the early part of this decade greatly hurt the adoption of Solaris on the x86 platform. I think a good question is if Linux proved my company which employees Americans a better TCO than Sun or Apple why should I not use it?
Does BSD have a true microkernel architecture? Do all drivers run isolated in user mode, making it extremely robust? Does it fit in a tiny footprint? No? Then it can't work as well in Minix's target market.
Of course, the real reason BSD isn't the standard now instead of Linux is people like you falsely claiming theft. The AT&T lawsuit held up acceptance of BSD just long enough for Linux to take hold. Linux was already popular by the time BSD was in the clear.