Re: What is accepted into the standard kernel sources ?

Mitch Davis (mjd@nsmd.aus.hp.com)
Thu, 05 Feb 1998 14:16:23 +1100

Theodore Y. Ts'o wrote:
>
> > specifications. The driver - the part that interfaces between the
> > Linux kernel and the library - is released under GPL. The library
> > itself is not available in source form, but could be included
>
> As a practical matter though, you might want to stop and ask yourself if
> this is really necessary or matters. It doesn't take all that much
> effort to disassemble a compiled .o file, and people who think that it
> is difficult are just kidding themselves.

... as we recently saw with the the Pentium f00f bug incident.
A .o file was released for some crufty OS, and it was torn apart in
about two days to provide a f00f bug fix for Linux.

Alan Cox wrote:
> If your company can't compete if your hardware interfaces are
> disclosed, I'd suggest that you should take a hard look at your
> business model or your technology, because that should be a red flag
> that something might be seriously wrong.

Right on, there. Besides, if I had the choice between two h/w
products, one which came with GPLed source for the drivers, and one
which didn't, guess which I'd pick.

Henrik, what the Linux community has given you is a massive market
into which you can sell hardware. Don't you think it's fair to give
a little back?

Just my two cents.

Mitch.

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