Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 16:43:49 -0800 From: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> To: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: any Linux distros which are not Open Source? Message-ID: <3A5BB045.40F9856@acuson.com> References: <Pine.BSF.4.31.0101091240230.48782-100000@pcle2.cc.univie.ac.at> <3A5BA9E2.34D6D857@softweyr.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Wes Peters wrote: > > If it's Linux, it's GPL. If it's GPL, it *must* be open source. > > Let's correct that: > > If it's GPL, it's *illegal* unless it is open source. > > People (and companies) break the law all the time, and usually get away > with it. The Linux kernel has an exception written in to allow for system calls. I also recall that Linus allows closed source loadable modules. In practice it is very similar to the LGPL. A lot of the closed source Linux stuff operates on this exception instead of outright violating the license. I don't know how Rio does things, but it shouldn't be too hard to use Linux in an embedded environment without having to actually modify the kernel. David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3A5BB045.40F9856>