I can't see what's wrong with distributing a compiled kernel alone,
provided the source is actually available freely;
Whether this is a problem depends on the details of the situation.
There are some situations, some scenarios, where it would not do any
harm. But in other situations it could be very difficult, as a
practical matter, for users to get their hands on the corresponding
source code. The source code of a standard version of Linux is
available in many places on the net and is not likely to get lost.
But someone modifies it, that source code may not be widely available.
Suppose that the binary of a program is distributed during one week,
and during that week the corresponding source code is available on a
network server. The following week that server deletes the source
code. How do the users get the source when they want it subsequently?
Maybe someone downloaded a copy, maybe not. We would have to make
careful specifications to prevent this problem.
Now suppose that the source remains available on the server for years,
so the above problem does not occur. Downloading megabytes of source
from the net is feasible for most users in the US; maybe now it is
feasible for people in Europe too (though it was not long ago that
some Europeans told me it was too expensive). But in some parts of
the world it is very expensive to download a large amount of source
code. If people there cannot get it by mail order, they cannot
feasibly get it at all.
At some point in the future, downloading large amounts of source may
feasible everywhere in the world. When that happens, it could be a
good idea to change the GPL to permit this way of making the
corresponding source available, even when binaries are distributed on
physical media. But the criteria will have to be carefully written.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 15 2000 - 21:00:17 EST