Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750990AbVLHMVn (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Dec 2005 07:21:43 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750992AbVLHMVn (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Dec 2005 07:21:43 -0500 Received: from witte.sonytel.be ([80.88.33.193]:51927 "EHLO witte.sonytel.be") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750978AbVLHMVn (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Dec 2005 07:21:43 -0500 Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 13:19:02 +0100 (CET) From: Geert Uytterhoeven To: Michele cc: Denis Vlasenko , Andrea Arcangeli , William Lee Irwin III , Arjan van de Ven , Linux Kernel Development Subject: Re: Linux in a binary world... a doomsday scenario In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <1133779953.9356.9.camel@laptopd505.fenrus.org> <20051205121851.GC2838@holomorphy.com> <20051206011844.GO28539@opteron.random> <200512061426.37287.vda@ilport.com.ua> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2113 Lines: 50 On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Michele wrote: > On 12/7/05, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: > > On Tue, 6 Dec 2005, Denis Vlasenko wrote: > > > On Tuesday 06 December 2005 03:18, Andrea Arcangeli wrote: > > > > On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 04:18:51AM -0800, William Lee Irwin III wrote: > > > > > The December 6 event is extraordinarily unlikely. What's vastly more > > > > > likely is consistent "erosion" over time. First the 3D video > > drivers, > > > > > then the wireless network drivers, then the fakeraid drivers, and so > > on. > > > > > > > > I agree about the erosion. > > > > > > > > I am convinced that the only way to stop the erosion is to totally > > stop > > > > buying hardware that has only binary only drivers (unless you buy it > > to > > > > create an open source driver or to reverse engineer the binary only > > > > driver of course! ;). > > > > > > I'm afraid there is not enough Linux users in desktop/laptop market > > > for vendors to notice. > > > > > > How about refusing binary-only modules instead? I mean, maybe > > > > You mean, call panic() if module license not acceptable? Nice! > > This can only be defined a GPL-integralist approach. You are ignoring closed > SDK used by almost every one who uses linux on embedded platforms...from > Linksys routers and access points to media stations to STB with hardware a/v > decoders. You cant really think linux could influence nearly the whole IT > market, especially if they make money selling closed source SDK. If you post in HTML, you're message will never make it to the list. Gr{oetje,eeting}s, Geert -- Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that. -- Linus Torvalds - 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/