Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S964798AbWHCPfP (ORCPT ); Thu, 3 Aug 2006 11:35:15 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S964797AbWHCPfP (ORCPT ); Thu, 3 Aug 2006 11:35:15 -0400 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:11209 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S964798AbWHCPfN (ORCPT ); Thu, 3 Aug 2006 11:35:13 -0400 Message-ID: <44D217A7.9020608@redhat.com> Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:35:03 -0400 From: Rik van Riel User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (X11/20060614) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Zachary Amsden CC: Linux Kernel Mailing List , Linus Torvalds , greg@kroah.com, Andrew Morton , Christoph Hellwig , Rusty Russell , Jack Lo Subject: Re: A proposal - binary References: <44D1CC7D.4010600@vmware.com> In-Reply-To: <44D1CC7D.4010600@vmware.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1524 Lines: 38 Zachary Amsden wrote: > And by NO circumstances, is it required to be a CLOSED source binary > blob. In fact, why can't it be open? In the event of a firmware bug, > in fact, it is very desirable to have this software be open so that > it can be fixed You're making a very good argument as to why we should probably require that the code linking against such an interface, if we decide we want one, should be required to be open source. > I think you will see why our VMI layer is quite similar to a > traditional ROM, and very dissimilar to an evil GPL-circumvention > device. > (?) There are only two reasonable objections I can see to open > sourcing the binary layer. Since none of the vendors that might use such a paravirtualized ROM for Linux actually have one of these reasons for keeping their paravirtualized ROM blob closed source, I say we might as well require that it be open source. As for the evilness of a binary interface - the interface between kernel and userland is a stable binary interface and is decidedly non-evil. I could see a similar use for a stable paravirtualization interface, to make compatibility between Linux and various hypervisor versions easier. As long as it's open source so the thing can be debugged :) -- All Rights Reversed - 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/