From: Marsh J. Ray (marsh.lists.openbsd.orgmysteray.com)
Date: Wed Jun 02 2004 - 08:25:10 CDT

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Damien Miller wrote:

> Marsh J. Ray wrote:
>
> > Linus Torvald's position on the subject is consistently against
> > vendors distributing binary-only modules.
>
> Try running a Nvidia or ATI or Atheros or one of many other cards on
> Linux without using a binary module.
> The existance and use of these
> is a direct consequence of Linux's cop-out lassez-faire attitude in
> allowing them.

The "Linux Kernel Community" has been inconsistent on the issue. Maybe
they once considered themselves "strategically ambiguous", but the
latest Linus post I read argued that any kernel driver would be a
"derivative work" of the kernel itself, even if it just used function
entry points. Never mind the existence of "#ifndef NON_GPL" or whatever
in the headers. Interestingly, it's the exact same argument that SCO
uses to claim that Linux is a derivative work of Unix.

I'd say it's more of a direct consequence of Linux kernel developers
inability to live without hardware-accelerated 3D to play Quake or whatever.

Yet another reason I'm using OpenBSD.

- Marsh

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