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GPL Causing Problems for Derivative Linux Distros

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rules-just-make-everything-harder dept.

NewsForge (Also owned by VA) is reporting on a recent discovery by Warren Woodford about how the GPL could affect derivative Linux distributions. This could make life difficult for those small distros that are being maintained by one or two people in their spare time due to the high amount of work it creates. From the article: "Woodford does supply the source code for MEPIS' reconfigured kernel in a Debian source-package. His mistake seems to have been the assumption that, so long as the source code was available somewhere, he did not have to provide it himself if he hadn't modified it. While he has not contacted any other distributions, he suspects that he is far from the only one to make this assumption. 'We, like 10,000 other people, probably, believed we were covered by the safe harbor of having an upstream distribution available online,' Woodford says. 'I think, of the 500 distributions tracked by DistroWatch, probably 450 of them are in trouble right now per this position.'"

5 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. Yet another example by nurb432 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Of why the BSD license is 'more' free, and much safer

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    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  2. Why not worry about making the product work? by Vermyndax · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Wow. I sure do with Linux hackers would spend as much time fixing buggy-ass source code as they do splitting hairs over the GPL. No wonder the GPL works better than the code does.

  3. Why isn't this on the front page? by dedazo · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Not even as one of those little links in-between the stories? Isn't this important? If this was the latest "OMFG M$ IS TEH SUXX LOLOLOL" article would it be relegated to the section without exposure to the front page? Does it bring up too much reality for everyone to digest at once?

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    Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
  4. Re:Applies to other GPL software as well by Geekboy(Wizard) · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    its a legal requirement (according to the GPL). they should suck it up and give him instructions on where to obtain it.

  5. Re:How did this get modded up? by kv9 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ok, i'll bite

    And these snobbish attitudes are exactly the reason why linux has difficulty in desktop penetration and overall mindshare.

    first of all, i see you have a lowish uid and should know better before talking shit. second, i know that OpenBSDs `mission statement' is to provide a solid, free, secure OS -- what's the goal of Linux, handholding and making friends? i think not.

    and before the RMS-squad starts gnawing on the back of my head, lets assume he wrote GNU/Linux and was not referring just at the kernel.

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    Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S