Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754660AbWLRV5v (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:57:51 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754661AbWLRV5v (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:57:51 -0500 Received: from gw02.mail.saunalahti.fi ([195.197.172.116]:45472 "EHLO gw02.mail.saunalahti.fi" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754660AbWLRV5u (ORCPT >); Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:57:50 -0500 X-Greylist: delayed 1379 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:57:49 EST Message-ID: <4587097D.5070501@opensound.com> Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 23:34:53 +0200 From: Hannu Savolainen User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 (Windows/20061025) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Marek Wawrzyczny , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, torvalds@osdl.org Subject: Open letter to Linux kernel developers (was Re: Binary Drivers) References: <200612162007.32110.marekw1977@yahoo.com.au> In-Reply-To: <200612162007.32110.marekw1977@yahoo.com.au> 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: 4616 Lines: 85 Marek Wawrzyczny wrote: > Dear Linux Kernel ML, > > I am writing as a Linux-only user of over 2 years to express my concern with > the recent proposal to block out closed source modules from the kernel. > > While, I understand and share your sentiments over open source software and > drivers. I fear however, that trying to steamroll the industry into > developing open source drivers by banning closed source drivers is going to > have a completely different result. They will simply abandon Linux support > for some of their products altogether. > As a developer of some "closed source" drivers I can confirm that this is exactly the case. I would never consider open sourcing my work just because somebody is pointing pistol to my neck. I would leave the whole IT business and start doing something else rather than accept this kind of mafia-like negotiation methods. For a professional developer of any software the decision of open sourcing it is not easy. "Just for fun" developers have no problems because they don't expect to be able to live on their work anyway. However a professional developer can release software under GPL only if it's considered invaluable or if there is some way to guarantee sufficient income. Releasing something under GPL without a guaranteed backup plan is like jumping from an airplane without parasuit. If somebody forces me to jump form an airplane without a parasuit then what would this be called? > The bottom line is that the proposed 1st Jan 2008 dead line is unlikely to > make any corporations tremble. It is likely to be the day when I will be no > longer able to run the latest version of the kernel. To us this decision would mean that after Jan 1 2008 we will be out of business (at least in the Linux market). Due to the nature of our product (kernel level sound API) there is no alternative way to get USB working. We could try to develop an alternative API that is user land based but this is not going to work. We could also develop an artifical user land driver that would require application->kernel->deamon->kernel type looping which kills performance and causes massive latencies but it doesn't make any sense. Our alternatives are to leave the Linux market or to release our code under GPL. GPLing means that we will have to give to the major Linux companies full rights to do whatever they like with our code. They will have complete freedom to adapt our product for their purposes and to sell it for profit. There is no law that would require them to pay anything to us. There is also no way we could compete with them because the current device/module model makes it completely impossible to ship precompiled binary modules for all possible kernel distributions/versions. At this moment only the companies controlling the Linux distributions can sell binary drivers. Developers contributing their software to Linux kernel have full right to decide if other kernel code using their work is derived or not. However is it not fair that developers of some key subsystem like USB use this right? There is no alternative USB subsystem that the others could use. Of course we could take the earlier USB subsystem before the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL change and ship it together with our software. However is this going to work or is it benefit of anybody? No. Using EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL is fair to protect code such as checksum or encryption/decryption algorithms is fair. Developers of independent kernel modules can use their own code. But the USB subsystem is different case because there is no alternative. Isn't it somehow suspicious if this kind of decisions are made by employees of companies that develop a product which directly competes with ours. Maybe this is the way how the free Linux community works. I would suggest the Linux kernel developer community should write down some rules the developers should agree _before_ they contribute anything to the kernel. It's not good to anybody that different developers can set different rules for the usage of their code. In particular it's not good that anybody can put additional restrictions to subsystems/interfaces that have been freely usable for years. The rest of the IT industry can then examine the rules and decide if there is any idea in investing on Linux based products. Best regards, Hannu - 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/