On Wed, Mar 14, 2007 at 08:01:08AM -0700, Martin Lefkowitz wrote: > In my opinion, unless there is another company that can meet his > requirements, the only real answer is to have an SDIO interface and let > the end user/developer decide how to load a binary into the kernel from > the chipset vendor.
No way. We will never encourage our users to use legally questionable code. As soon as you opt for proprietary bits in the kernel, you enter a _meassy_ and nasty legal grey area. Please don't start a GPL / Licensing / binary-only lkm debate here. This has been discussed over and over at other times. I doubt you will find any reasonably technically and legally skilled person who would ever claim tha having proprietary kernel modules is a well-defined legal area. This kind of decision is what differentiates us from [almost] all the other vendors out there. If we cannot find a 100% GPL compatible WiFi solution, we will not have WiFi at all in our devices. This is sad, but we're not compromising on this. Now if some of you ask yourself: But you're having binary-only GPS code! My answer is: 1) it's in userspace, and thus not a legal issue at all. Nobody argues that running Oracle on top of a Linux kernel is a GPL violation. No grey arae. Clear-cut and 100% legal. 2) it's not required to make the phone wokr. GPS is definitely a add-on feature, a gimmick. Not as important as communication channels like GSM, Bluetooth, WiFi. -- - Harald Welte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://openmoko.org/ ============================================================================ Software for the world's first truly open Free Software mobile phone _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
