On Mon, 2006-01-23 at 17:52 -0800, Bill Unruh wrote: > On Mon, 23 Jan 2006, Lee Revell wrote: > > > On Mon, 2006-01-23 at 17:34 -0800, Bill Unruh wrote: > >> Well, I also think that is a mistake. A Write once would also be far > >> more > >> stable as far as Linux itself is concerned. If every time the kernel > >> changes you have to worry whether or not your driver is broken, it > >> makes > >> for highly unstable drivers, even if they are open source. > >> Furthermore, > >> Linux is a tool for most of us, not a religion. > > > > It's not religion, it's the law. Drivers are part of the kernel so must > > Law? What law? No where in copyright law, which is the only law which > might apply is there anything about drivers or kernels. > And your statement was "Linux developers do not want to allow closed source > drivers" The wants of Linux developers are not law. >
As the kernel developers hold the copyright, their wants as expressed by the GPL do carry the force of law. > Drivers are part of the kernel-- in what sense. They are separate programs, > which the kernel interacts with. How would they be > different in userspace? What exactly makes them "part of the kernel" that a > userspace program would not be? > The kernel does not depend on them. Most are modules which the kernel can > take or leave. > > > be GPL. If you want closed source drivers they must not be part of the > > kernel, they have to run in userspace. > > Why? > A Linux kernel driver must use the kernel module API to interface with the kernel, and those APIs consist of GPL 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
