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Linus Speaks Out On GPLv3
Slagged writes to mention the word that Linus Torvalds isn't a fan of the new GPL draft. News.com has the story, and someone purporting to be Linus is causing a ruckus in the Groklaw thread on the subject. From the News.com article: "Say I'm a hardware manufacturer. I decide I love some particular piece of open-source software, but when I sell my hardware, I want to make sure it runs only one particular version of that software, because that's what I've validated. So I make my hardware check the cryptographic signature of the binary before I run it ... The GPLv3 doesn't seem to allow that, and in fact, most of the GPLv3 changes seem to be explicitly designed exactly to not allow the above kind of use, which I don't think it has any business doing."
...to pay your $699 licensing fee you cock-smoking teabaggers.
Yeah, what if in the future hardware is: "Designed for Windows Vista... AND ONLY WINDOWS VISTA, YOU COCK-SMOKING TEABAGGERS!"
It's bad enough finding drivers, it will be much worse if this happens.
And chance are before too long we'll be seeing things exactly like this.
Times change. The FSF has radicalized their "freedom through coercion" views and is complicating GPL over what's necessary. The more you complicate a license, the more fair use "collateral-damage" you get. There are fair uses for hardware validation, you can't just rule them all out. If your hardware vendor screws you, buy from another one.
> This is a twisted and difficult issue.
:)
:) But it was not RMS certainly. ;)
And a bit irrevelant. I would like to see explained how The New GPL Thing will deal with real problems like software patenst. Not futuristic paranoia of ALL HARDWARE BEING BORG AND CLOSED. Since the latter won't happen soon. I am a bit pragmatic.
> On the one hand, the whole point of open source is that you can change it and then run your
> changed version.
But obviously you cannot run it on anythig - you need a compatible piece of standard hardware. Am I right here?
> That shouldn't be suddenly untrue at the arbitrary border between
> hardware and software.
There is no border. Software is abstract from hardware. With few layers of it. I can run the same software (code base) on different hardware, that is nice.
> Hardware that uses approved versions of open source while actively
> preventing my version from running violates the spirit of the thing.
So don't buy this hardware. It serves no purpose to you.
> On the other hand, most of us have spent the last decade saying
> that its OK to use both open source and closed source software
> on the same machine.
Well - why not?
> No one argues, for example, that you can't run GCC on top of
> a closed-source unix kernel
RMS does.
> even though it requires that kernel in order to run. Nor does
> anyone argue that the processor and other chips used by the
> kernel must be an open, free design.
You cannot leverage Open Source concept to hardware - hardware is something phisical that needs to be manufactured/assembled - it is not only the design/concept/bits. It is actual meat.
With this in mind you cannot use software license for hardware - it has no point. Hardware is totally different from software.
> The real problem, I think, is that RMS (via the FSF) is trying to force
> it down our throats as usual.
Yeah - I fully agree. That is exactly the problem. But I would not call it "force" since he cannot do that. I would call it that he will do anything to make it happen - and I find it stupid since he is fighting against (IMHO) minor theoretical problems instead of focusing on real problems like copyright fragmentation. If code has like 1000 developers and it is GPLed you have certain trouble to defend it in court. There are general problems with respecting GPL license. There are patents and so on.
But RMS instead of focusing real problems focuses on fixing future unreal problems - it is like he is fighting with wind-mills.
> He's a strange bird in that he really gets the freedom issue at one level
> while it flies totally over his head at another.
I think he is mentally sick.
No, I'm not having trouble understanding what the GPL does. I'm just having trouble getting people to answer the question I asked rather than the question they apparently want to answer.