Re: [PATCH] clarify message and give support contact for non-GPL modules

[Marc Boucher]

On May 1, 2004, at 8:22 PM, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> So I'm not claiming that _you_ don't give anything back. It's purely 
> about
> the module, which is not giving anything back to developers, and as 
> such
> you shouldn't expect us to respect it.

The HSF modules give back what they can right now, which is all 
operating system source, in an attempt to strike a reasonable 
compromise.

> > The modules in question are not binary-only, but mixed source/binary.
> > With the submitted patch, we are also offering to take as much support
> > burden off the community by clarifying the messages to explicitly
> > direct users to where they should go for help when using third-party
> > modules.
>
> Yes, I think that patch in general makes sense.

ok

> But I literally _do_ want
> people to be alarmed about tainting, because it's a DAMN BIG issue.
> Suddenly you go from a system that is openly supported by a lot of
> individuals and a number of companies, to one that is not. It's 
> literally
> the difference between "open" and "proprietary", and that is an 
> IMPORTANT
> difference.

Understood. So perhaps we should call it "open" and "proprietary" which 
are clear, well known words. "tainted" is honestly confusing/hard to 
understand for many ordinary users, especially international/non-native 
speakers who do not encounter the word that often (thankfully ;-).

> So I don't see how you can really try to minimize that HUGE difference,
> without effectively saying that you don't respect the work and the 
> ethics
> that have gone into Linux in the first place.
>
> See what I'm saying? A proprietary module is more a fundamental issue 
> than
> you seem to give it credit for being, and users should be told in big
> blinking neon letters about it.

Yes, I see what you are saying and agree that the user should be told 
*once* about the proprietary module, but I don't know how you will 
manage to make it look like blinking neon from within the kernel ;-)

Marc

> 			Linus

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