They are, there's just little reason to use them - especially since you'll probably need to build in any loadable firmware, which may make the result undistributable.
Posted Aug 24, 2012 23:01 UTC (Fri) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313)
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that depends on the firmware on on your interpretation of the requirements for source for that firmware.
I haven't seen anyone sued for the source of a firmware blob if the firmware blob itself didn't included GPL code in it. (as opposed to the firmware blob being used as data by GPL code and uploaded to a device)
A lot of the linux kernel developers consider the splitting of the firmware out of the source tree to be a waste of time from a technical and legal point of view, but they don't fight it because it shuts up the people who think that it does matter from a legal point of view.
besides, the GPL only comes in to play when you distribute the resulting binary. There's a huge amount of stuff that you can do (especially in a large company) without triggering this.
On LTO builds with 32bit compilers.
Posted Aug 25, 2012 4:44 UTC (Sat) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239)
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"Which may make the result undistributable" - you appear to have just spent several paragraphs agreeing with me. What was your point?
On LTO builds with 32bit compilers.
Posted Aug 25, 2012 5:06 UTC (Sat) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313)
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Ok, "MAY" make the result undistributable, heavy emphasis and lots of doubt on the word MAY
There are a LOT of people who don't think it would.
Also, even if it did, it wouldn't matter for lots of people, because they don't distribute the resulting binaries.