Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sat, 4 Jan 2003 13:00:50 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sat, 4 Jan 2003 13:00:50 -0500 Received: from h-64-105-35-183.SNVACAID.covad.net ([64.105.35.183]:54919 "EHLO freya.yggdrasil.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sat, 4 Jan 2003 13:00:49 -0500 From: "Adam J. Richter" Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2003 10:09:14 -0800 Message-Id: <200301041809.KAA06893@adam.yggdrasil.com> To: andre@linux-ide.org Subject: Re: Honest does not pay here ... Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1876 Lines: 34 I believe that the illegality of proprietary kernel modules has resulting in more GPL-compatible kernel code than without such a restriction. Perhaps more people would initially write contributions in the absense of such a restriction, but my experience has been that, given that choice, enough contributors eventually evolve their policies to something not sufficiently free that there is less in total to build on, and the net result is that software does not advance in the long term as quickly as with something like the GPL. That is one reason why this Berkeley alumnus decided to bet on Linux rather than BSD back in 1992. It's a complex empirical question. I believe that copying conditions have been *one* of the determining factors in adoption of Linux versus Berkeley Software Distribution (and I'm not a BSD detractor; I'd like to see Linux distributions that could boot dual boot a BSD kernel with Linux-compatible system calls, but I digress). This brings me to my suggestion for how you could legally accomplish what you're trying to do with only modest change in your procedures. You could do your proprietary work on BSD and port any GPL-compatible stuff that you want to release to Linux. I expect the BSD people would probably welcome you and it might even improve communication and reduce duplication of effort between BSD and Linux camps. Adam J. Richter __ ______________ 575 Oroville Road adam@yggdrasil.com \ / Milpitas, California 95035 +1 408 309-6081 | g g d r a s i l United States of America "Free Software For The Rest Of Us." - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/