Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932891AbXBRFTV (ORCPT ); Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:19:21 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S933117AbXBRFTV (ORCPT ); Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:19:21 -0500 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:53206 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932891AbXBRFTV (ORCPT ); Sun, 18 Feb 2007 00:19:21 -0500 To: davids@webmaster.com Cc: Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers References: From: Alexandre Oliva Organization: Red Hat OS Tools Group Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 03:15:10 -0200 In-Reply-To: (David Schwartz's message of "Sat\, 17 Feb 2007 06\:19\:07 -0800") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.93 (gnu/linux) 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: 1604 Lines: 32 On Feb 17, 2007, "David Schwartz" wrote: >> On Saturday 17 February 2007 03:42, David Schwartz wrote: >> >> > Again, see Lexmark v. Static Controls. If "make a toner cartridge >> > that works with a particular Lexmark printer" is a functional >> > idea, why is "make a graphics driver that works with a particular >> > Linux kernel" not? What is the difference you think matters? >> That you cannot build such modules without integrating parts of >> actual Linux kernel code (via #includes etc), whereas you can build >> compatible toner cartridges without using any original component. > Static Controls actually put a copy of Lexmark's 'Toner Loading Program' on > each compatible cartridge they made. The printer actually copies the TLP off > the cartridge. In other words, to make a compatible catridge, you do have to > use an original component. (Or at least, it's much more difficult not to.) Besides, you *can* build a module for Linux without using any kernel code. It just takes a lot of work to implement all you'd otherwise need from the kernel in a clean-room fashion. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ FSF Latin America Board Member http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org} Free Software Evangelist oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org} - 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/