Subject: Re: more files with licenses that aren't GPL-compatible
From: Adrian Cox <adrian@humboldt.co.uk>
To: Helge Hafting <helgehaf@aitel.hist.no>
Cc: Erik Harrison <erikharrison@gmail.com>, davids@webmaster.com,
       eric@cisu.net, Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
In-Reply-To: <20040616224949.GB7932@hh.idb.hist.no>
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	 <5b18a542040616133415bf54d1@mail.gmail.com>
	 <20040616224949.GB7932@hh.idb.hist.no>
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Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 10:08:31 +0100
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On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 23:49, Helge Hafting wrote:

> 1. don't _link_ the proprietary file into the kernel, ship firmware & logo
> as separate files along with the distro.  No problem.

USB serial drivers could be implemented in userspace given a 2.6 version
of Rogier Wolff's userspace serial patch:
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0303.1/att-1075/01-patch-2.4.20.trueport-12-mrt

We currently have a lot of USB drivers in the kernel that could be 
implemented in userspace. I'm thinking of drivers/usb/image, misc, and
serial particularly. If there was a userspace API to do for video
capture what SANE does for scanners, drivers/usb/media would be mostly
unneeded as well.

If vendors noticed that this was possible, we'd probably get more binary
userspace drivers for USB devices. I pass no judgement here as to
whether this would be good or bad.

- Adrian Cox
Humboldt Solutions Ltd.


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