Linus was always bitchy... [LWN.net]

Linus was always bitchy...

Posted Sep 27, 2006 8:09 UTC (Wed) by fooker (guest, #14834)
In reply to: Linus was always bitchy... by russell
Parent article: Why Torvalds is sitting out the GPLv3 process (Linux.com)

Looks to me that the retaliation is not against what the code is used for. It is against circumventing the freedoms the GPL is suppose to guarrantee.

The GPL says I can fix bugs and security holes, I can customise it to my needs, I can support it after the company has gone under. So giving the source with no way to use it IS circumventing the intent of the GPL. I see GPLv3 as a more explicit statement of the goals of the GPL.

I don't quite understand this whole TiVo-issue. As far as I understand the spirit of the GPL is to guarantee free use of program code, nothing else; not free use of the resulting binaries. You can have all the GPL'd code used in a TiVo box and use it in any way you like, as per the license. You just can't run your modified programs in the box. That's not against the GPL. Against your personal values maybe, but that's a different issue. Then just don't buy a TiVo.

For many devices it is actually good thing that you can't use custom software in them. I for one don't want to see the day when people start using hacked firmware on their cell phones, for example.

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Linus was always bitchy...

Posted Sep 27, 2006 10:59 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

s far as I understand the spirit of the GPL is to guarantee free use of program code, nothing else

Wrong. Very wrong. The goal from the start was to make it possible that the "user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes". That was the goal from the start.

You can have all the GPL'd code used in a TiVo box and use it in any way you like, as per the license. You just can't run your modified programs in the box.

If you can not run modified code then the whole house of cards just become useless. This means GPL failed to achieve the thing it was supposed to do. This is why the GPLv3 is needed in first place - GPLv2 is not enough in today's world to guarantee it!

Linus was always bitchy...

Posted Sep 27, 2006 11:09 UTC (Wed) by anandsr21 (guest, #28562) [Link]

You don't really know GPL or FSF or RMS. Suffice it to say that at first there was the printer and now there is the Tivo.