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Linux Wireless Driver Violates BSD License?

Posted by kdawson on from the put-it-back dept.

bsdphx writes "After years of encouragement from the OpenBSD community for others to use Reyk Floeter's free Atheros wireless driver, it seems that the Linux world is finally listening. Unfortunately, they seem to think that they can strip the BSD license right out of it."

2 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Welll by JeremyGNJ · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I believe you're correct. This is Microsoft winning. But it's less about Micorosft winning the game, and more about FOSS losing it for themselves.

    "We hate all the legal restrictions and copy rights of closed-source software"...
    "So we're gonna write a bunch of things that are twice as complicated"

  2. Re:It's about dividing the communities.... by Hatta · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    It isn't so much a disagreement about how "free" is defined; it is more about who the target of "free" is. The BSD-style folks focus on programmers; the GPL-style folks future end-users.

    That's not really the case. The GPL's guarantee of continued code freedom is more useful to a developer than an end user for the simple reason that developers code and end users don't.

    The GPL is "more free" than the BSD because the only thing it restricts is the kind of restrictions that can be put on the code. Its restrictions are much like the restrictions found in the bill of rights, they ensure no one can take your freedom. Now tell me, is the US more or less free with the 1st amendment?

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