Naughton didn't do enough research to justify his conclusions.

Naughton didn't do enough research to justify his conclusions.

Re 1: Google doesn't want glibc, they wrote their own. Perfectly allowed. There never has been a requirement to use glibc (Yes, I was around when it was adopted). If they start with the headers sprinkled with holy penguin pee by doing "make install_headers" or the raw ones is something easy to fix, and probably not enough of a difference to do any harm.

Re 2: Linus and RMS are talking explicitly about this exact point in the emails I link. Their intent surely means something here... if somebody came out of the woods and claimed their lines in *.h were meant only for use in GPLed code, the above, unambiguous, statements to the contrary (which as a contributor to the kernel everybody is aware of) would surely get them into big trouble.

Re 3.1: OK, if it is called "circumvent the GPL" or not isn't the point. The point is that what they are doing is exactly in line with what the copyright holders intended (and stated very explicitly). If something is being done "artfully" (skillfully, clever) or plain bluntly is besides the point here.

Re 3.2: My bet is mine, and mine only. Yes, extremely paranoid decision makers might shy away because of this brouhaha, but I daresay they won't take decisions for long if they insist in such views... there are certainly much more tangible risks in all sort of routine activities.