Binary-only modules not to be banned - this time

Posted Dec 15, 2006 13:44 UTC (Fri) by DouglasJM (subscriber, #6435)
Parent article: Binary-only modules not to be banned - this time

Great discussion, I'm glad that this is important to many people.

I think it may be good though to remember the point that Linus made about copy rights and telling people how they can use what is being given to them.

One of the most important things about the Linux kernel, and why it has experienced such rapid growth, is the lack of restrictions on what you can add to it and how you use it. I think that if we start telling people you can't do this or you can't do that, we run the risk of slowing the momentum that the kernel now enjoys.

What is more important, as I saw mentioned in these comments a couple times, is that we vote with our pocket books. Buy the stuff that is open, that specs are released for, and that follow the principles of open source. If we all do that to the best of our ability then we create the desire for hardware manufactures to open up their drivers.