Next-gen Nokia Linux devices will get multitouch and Qt UI (ars technica) [LWN.net]

Next-gen Nokia Linux devices will get multitouch and Qt UI (ars technica)

Posted Oct 14, 2009 11:39 UTC (Wed) by epa (subscriber, #39769)
In reply to: Next-gen Nokia Linux devices will get multitouch and Qt UI (ars technica) by freealter
Parent article: Next-gen Nokia Linux devices will get multitouch and Qt UI (ars technica)

the freedom of use, enhance, distribute software. GPL (including V2) guarantees that.

Unfortunately not, or at least, not combining one or more of these. If you have a locked-down device that only runs signed binaries, then you can use the software on it, and you can download source code from somewhere and enhance it, but there is no way to change the software and then use your changed version. Similarly, you may be able to distribute the changed code to others, but they will not be able to use it on their device. This is despite the intention of the GPLv2 which is that you should be able to run, share, and change the software freely.

(Log in to post comments)

Next-gen Nokia Linux devices will get multitouch and Qt UI (ars technica)

Posted Oct 14, 2009 13:23 UTC (Wed) by freealter (guest, #4335) [Link]

In the absolute (TPM + DRM) I agree with you. In the case of the Nokia device, I don't. They allow to run another OS image with whatever you want.

But the crucial question is not there. Do we want to have a legal blue-ray player on Linux one day ? One that we can give legally to any administration of any country ? Yes ? Then we will have to use TPM, chain of trust, ...

And if we don't we will continue to have funny remarks such as : "what is the last innovation in your linux ? You have a legal DVD player ! Wow ! I am impressed !". And nice (proprietary, closed sources) competitors will continue to take the market.

So open source must not be incompatible with these technologies on a purely philosophical/ideological basis.

Next-gen Nokia Linux devices will get multitouch and Qt UI (ars technica)

Posted Oct 14, 2009 14:42 UTC (Wed) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link]

> Do we want to have a legal blue-ray player on Linux one day

No, actually, not really. It would be really nice to have a 100% foolproof *unlicensed* blue-ray player on Linux, though. I'm still waiting for that...

One thing that makes DVD players so great on Linux is that they don't follow the hateful "User- operation-prohibited" flags that DVD players are required by their license to follow. The other thing is that you can extract the data, recompress it, and store it on your hard drive for easier playing without needing the physical disc.

If it could only just do exactly what a standalone DVD player could do, and no more, it hardly seems worthwhile.