Re: Linux vs BSD

[turnbull@example.com (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

>>>>> "Ted" == TMatsumu  <TMatsumu@example.com> writes:

    Ted>   Thanks for the comparison chart.  Something that at one
    Ted> time was true, was that with BSD, that "someone in charge"
    Ted> could sign an NDA, obtain source code considered proprietary
    Ted> by a vendor, write a BSD device driver, and distribute the
    Ted> binaries.  Same couldn't be done with Linux.

(1) Linus refuses to permit it, so you can't call the result "Linux."
    A slight difference, in practice; you wouldn't be able to upgrade
    your kernel (with Linux, you can never be sure if the kernel entry
    points that the driver depends on have changed :-) unless the
    person who signed the NDA upgraded the binary.  And upgrading
    kernels is what Linux is all about :):)
(2) More important, with loadable modules, I wonder if it could be
    done legally.  That could be "mere aggregation" under the GPL as
    far as I can tell.

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Socio-Economic Planning                         Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305 JAPAN                 turnbull@example.com