Greg KH wrote: > On Wed, Feb 14, 2007 at 08:39:36AM +0100, Stephan A. Rickauer wrote: >> On the subject of http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/free_drivers.html >> >> Now these companies have a great excuse to keep specs locked up tight >> under NDA, while pretending to be "open." >> >> The OpenBSD project has been made clear more than once how this will >> hurt Free Software in the long run. Signing NDA's ensures that Linux >> gets a working driver, sure, but the internals are indistinguishable >> from magic. It is a source code version of a blob. > > I'm guessing that you did not read the followup FAQ about the program > at: > http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/free_drivers_faq.html > > Please see the final question and answer on that page.
I did read your FAQ but I can't see how it rebuts what has just been said. You seem to be happy with signing NDAs. If the result is a readable and understandable GPL'ed driver, companies will be even less motivated to release programming documentation. This will lead to a GPL-lock-in since you simply replace the vendor not willing to share specifications with an NDA'ed GPL developer not willing to share those, but GPL code only. This is not about freedom but about prostitution. All other projects will have to continue to reverse engineer GPL drivers. A very short sighted strategy of yours, but that's just my opinion. I am just disappointed how easily prominent people like you give up freedom, accompanied by clever-sounding excuses. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance... -- Stephan A. Rickauer ----------------------------------------------------------- Institute of Neuroinformatics Tel +41 44 635 30 50 University / ETH Zurich Sec +41 44 635 30 52 Winterthurerstrasse 190 Fax +41 44 635 30 53 CH-8057 Zurich Web www.ini.unizh.ch RSA public key: https://www.ini.uzh.ch/~stephan/pubkey.asc -----------------------------------------------------------
