On 6/14/07, David Schwartz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
And what about people who can't modify the Linux kernel? They don't know C. They don't know how to use a shell. They're not familiar with UNIX operating systems at all. Maybe they aren't smart enough to modify kernel code.
I learned C in part by modifying the Linux kernel and running the modified kernel on hardware I own, and enabling precisely that kind of tinkering is what the "spirit" of the GPL is about, as is quite plain (to me) from the preamble.
The GPL is about having the legal right to modify the software and being able to put other people's distributed improvements back into the original code base.
I agree that is what the letter of the GPLv<3 is about.
It does not guarantee that you will actually be able to modify the software and get it to work on some particular hardware.
Please don't conflate my endorsement of the "spirit" of the GPL with Alexandre's assertion that the GPLv2 forbids TiVOisation. I don't agree with him. My point is that people arguing that the spirit of the GPL doesn't revolve around the freedom of the end user to modify the software *and* run modified copies seem to be missing the point. Linus gets that, as he said in a previous message, he just doesn't personally care about freedom defined that way. Dave - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/