On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 22:12 -0400, M P Smoak wrote: > So a company that wanted to have a proprietary connection to linux > could write an open source blob and a closed connection to the blob > for their closed hardware/software? ie linux remains useable for > companies. > Not if the closed part was specifically developed to run on Linux. The key is whether it's a "derived work" as far as copyright law is concerned or not. If there's IP in your hardware than you absolutely cannot risk disclosing (maybe because you went for trade secret protection rather than patenting it) you can put the secret part of the driver in userspace and keep it closed. > If not, I'm having a hard time seeing this as a positive situation. > More like alsa shooting themselves in the foot. > > I'm not a programmer or audio pro; just a linux user who advocates > open source and avenues of co-existence with businesses. Read LKML sometime, there are tons of large companies releasing open source drivers for their hardware - Intel, AMD, IBM, Cisco, Via, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Veritas, Novell, SGI, plus zillions of smaller companies like Pathscale, Emulex, Mellanox. For audio there's M-Audio, RME, AudioScience, EchoAudio, Digigram, etc. I could go on and on - these are just the ones I know off the top of my head. Keep in mind that if you patent your hardware innovations, you're free to release an open source driver and no one can rip you off - for example Creative did this with the emu10k1. The ones shooting themselves in the foot are the small minority that refuse to release open source drivers. Lee
