Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1030382AbXBTUaZ (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:30:25 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S965122AbXBTUaZ (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:30:25 -0500 Received: from lug-owl.de ([195.71.106.12]:42909 "EHLO lug-owl.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S965074AbXBTUaY (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:30:24 -0500 Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:30:23 +0100 From: Jan-Benedict Glaw To: Helge Hafting Cc: v j , davids@webmaster.com, trent.waddington@gmail.com, "Michael K. Edwards" , "Linux-Kernel@Vger. Kernel. Org" , Neil Brown Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers Message-ID: <20070220203023.GB9712@lug-owl.de> Mail-Followup-To: Helge Hafting , v j , davids@webmaster.com, trent.waddington@gmail.com, "Michael K. Edwards" , "Linux-Kernel@Vger. Kernel. Org" , Neil Brown References: <3d57814d0702191458l1021caeyaefd7775398c5f2a@mail.gmail.com> <9b3a62ab0702192119l1bf9a284la93c9d1f01638ca4@mail.gmail.com> <45DB0788.1000600@aitel.hist.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="ZfOjI3PrQbgiZnxM" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <45DB0788.1000600@aitel.hist.no> X-Operating-System: Linux mail 2.6.12.3lug-owl X-gpg-fingerprint: 250D 3BCF 7127 0D8C A444 A961 1DBD 5E75 8399 E1BB X-gpg-key: wwwkeys.de.pgp.net X-Echelon-Enable: howto poison arsenous mail psychological biological nuclear warfare test the bombastical terror of flooding the spy listeners explosion sex drugs and rock'n'roll X-TKUeV: howto poison arsenous mail psychological biological nuclear warfare test the bombastical terror of flooding the spy listeners explosion sex drugs and rock'n'roll User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1928 Lines: 52 --ZfOjI3PrQbgiZnxM Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, 2007-02-20 15:36:56 +0100, Helge Hafting wrote: > If you have a need for "secret" source code, stuff most of it > in userspace. Make the drivers truly minimal; perhaps their > open/closed status won't matter that much when the bulk > of the code and the cleverness is kept safe in userspace. >=20 > Note that keeping drivers small this way is the recommended > way of working anyway. It isn't merely a way to keep your > code away from the GPL - you always want a small kernel. Keeping the legal stuff out of sight for a second, this'll solve the "problem" for the embedded developer, but surely not for the Linux community. Would you ever expect that eg. the thin GPL layer used by ATI/NVidia would be merged iff the rest would run in userland? It's just a workaround for the linking-the-object-file-into-the-kernel-image problem, but after all, it doesn't lead to a working driver being freely available. MfG, JBG --=20 Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw@lug-owl.de +49-172-7608481 Signature of: If it doesn't work, force it. the second : If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway. --ZfOjI3PrQbgiZnxM Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: Digital signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFF21pfHb1edYOZ4bsRAkrmAJ9zrBMXVvZYY+HNm/yjRY5nG8IhGACfRLaO z8djPgnty7ZQXuAeKaS9UuE= =h8F2 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --ZfOjI3PrQbgiZnxM-- - 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/