I was talking about the moral/ideological issue. My point is that from moral/ideological point of view it doesn't make sense to insist on OSS only in one case.
I do not argue with the definition of linking and its effect on GPL. I was trying to show that if we at all agree to live with closed source software, i.e. if agree to put extreme ideology aside, then we should think about finding a well defined place for closed source SW, so end users will benefit from prompt release of HW drivers. Furthermore, we may also think of some kind of Linux Hardware Quality Certification Lab, similar to the one Microsoft has (is it called WHQL ?). Probably OSDL (HQ in Beaverton, OR ?) can assist in this. On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:34:29 -0500 Lee Revell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, 2006-01-24 at 05:28 +0200, Sergei Steshenko wrote: > > " > > The difference is that the driver code is executed by the > > host CPU, while the firmware code is executed by the device > > " > > > > - kinda funny :-). > > > > OK, I propose to run a dual core or dual CPU computer. > > > > One CPU would be for opens source software and the other - for closed > > source software. > > > > Now, are the CPUs created equal ? > > And are the CPU and IDE driver controller created equal ? > > > > If not, why :-) ? > > You'd have to ask a lawyer. It depends on how "linking" is defined and > you would have to go to case law for that. The consensus, presumably > based on what the kernel developers' lawyers have told them, is that the > line is drawn between "driver" and "firmware" - firmware is not > considered to be linked into the kernel, as it runs on a different CPU > on the other side of a bus, while drivers are considered linked into the > kernel, as they run on the same CPU in the same context as kernel code. > > Lee > ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
