linux-kernel - Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

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Message-ID: <20070220203023.GB9712@lug-owl.de>
Date:	Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:30:23 +0100
From:	Jan-Benedict Glaw <jbglaw@...-owl.de>
To:	Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@...el.hist.no>
Cc:	v j <vj.linux@...il.com>, davids@...master.com,
	trent.waddington@...il.com,
	"Michael K. Edwards" <medwards.linux@...il.com>,
	"Linux-Kernel@...r. Kernel. Org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Neil Brown <neilb@...e.de>
Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

On Tue, 2007-02-20 15:36:56 +0100, Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@...el.hist.no> 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.
> 
> 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

-- 
      Jan-Benedict Glaw      jbglaw@...-owl.de              +49-172-7608481
 Signature of:                            If it doesn't work, force it.
 the second  :                   If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.

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