Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753681AbWLRJvj (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:51:39 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753679AbWLRJvj (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:51:39 -0500 Received: from ns.firmix.at ([62.141.48.66]:54618 "EHLO ns.firmix.at" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753677AbWLRJvi (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 04:51:38 -0500 Subject: Re: Binary Drivers From: Bernd Petrovitsch To: James Porter Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Firmix Software GmbH Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 10:51:31 +0100 Message-Id: <1166435491.13376.6.camel@tara.firmix.at> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.8.2.1 (2.8.2.1-2.fc6) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: -2.41 () AWL,BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2235 Lines: 57 On Fri, 2006-12-15 at 21:20 +0000, James Porter wrote: > I think some kernel developers take to much responsibility, is there a bug in a > binary driver? Send it upstream and explain to the user that it's a closed Plaese name them. AFAICS if there is a response, it is similar to "your kernel is tainted, please report the report elsewhere". > source driver and is up to said company to fix it. > > For what it's worth, I don't see any problem with binary drivers from hardware > manufacturers. You are probably not looking at the right places. > Just because nvidia makes a closed source driver doesn't mean that we can't also ^^ Please send patches. > create an open source driver(limited functionality, reverse engineered, > etc.,etc.). I firmly believe that the choice should be up to the user and/or > distro. I'm not a kernel dev, I don't know c...but I understand the concepts and ^^^^^^^^^^ Then become one if you are serious with the "we" above. > I should have the right to do what I want with this GPL code. Restricting me Then you should discuss this with law makers, politicians and the various pressure groups about copyright and/or authors rights and you surely *must* deal beforehand with the patent plague since this is even more restricting in any sense than author rights ever was (let alone copyright). And for such political debate LKML is probably not a good place. > only frustrates me. Should the default be open source, definitely; should binary > drivers be blocked from running on a linux kernel...certainly not. They are not blocked - it is up to the users to decide and live with the consequences. [...] > only to have the rug pulled out from under you. This is what makes the BSDs so > attractive. Why are you then here? Bernd -- Firmix Software GmbH http://www.firmix.at/ mobil: +43 664 4416156 fax: +43 1 7890849-55 Embedded Linux Development and Services - 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/