2010/11/21 GÃbor Stefanik <netrolller.3d@xxxxxxxxx>: > On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 10:44 PM, Ted Ts'o <tytso@xxxxxxx> wrote: >> On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 08:31:24PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote: >>> >>> Which we know in practice they won't. They'll sit on fixes (often >>> security fixes) and tweak and add private copies of features. In turn the >>> Linux one could then only keep up by adding features itself - which would >>> have to be GPL to stop the same abuse continuing. >>> >>> It's a nice idea but the corporations exist to make money and adding >>> proprietary custom stack add-ons is clearly a good move on their part to >>> do that. >> >> Hence my recommendation that if someone is going to do the work to >> create a 802.11 layer that has shims that work on multiple operating >> systems, it be GPL with explicit exceptions to allow said layer to >> work on legacy operating systems like QNX, et. al. ÂThat way it forces >> the hardware specific code to be released under the GPL --- if they >> want to take advantage of the "write onces, work on multiple operating >> systems" feature. >> >> If someone is going to go through all of this work to make it possible >> --- particularly if it's at a company such as Luis's employer, or any >> other wifi chipset provider --- why should it allow their competitors >> to do closed source drivers? ÂBetter to structure the driver licensing >> such that (a) there is benefit for companies to make a Linux driver by >> using this common stack, and (b) but in exchange, it forces them to >> make a driver which is guaranteed to be usable by Linux by virtual of >> the fact that (1) the native interface is Linux's wireless stack, and >> (2) the license forces them to GPL their driver. > > By forcing the driver to be GPL, you automatically exclude Windows > from the list of platforms supported by such a cross-OS driver, as the > Windows NDIS headers are AFAIK under a GPL-incompatible license, so no > GPL driver can be written for Windows. I've actually have been told GPL drivers for windows are possible with some hard work. I have yet to investigate further on what that "hard work" means. But yes, that is a good example. Luis -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
