Re: Linux, UDI and SCO.

david parsons (o.r.c@p.e.l.l.p.o.r.t.l.a.n.d.o.r.u.s)
20 Sep 1998 18:56:52 -0700


In article <linux.kernel.ABDFz0suqH@khim.mccme.ru>,
Khimenko Victor <khim@sch57.msk.ru> wrote:
>In <3603C1B9.2D6279A2@iphase.com> David Hollister (dhollist@Iphase.COM) wrote:
>DH> Terry et.al,
>
>DH> Maybe I should have done a little more research before opening my
>DH> mouth. I don't claim to be a UDI expert, a licensing expert, or
>DH> anything of the sort. Terry has evidently done a lot more research into
>DH> this whole thing than I have, which is great.
>
>But Terry still wrong. There are is GPL and even more important there is
>additional Linus clause about possibility of binary drivers for Linux.
>So we have three choices for UDI drivers:
> 1. GNU GPL'ed UDI drivers or similar. Linux community are happy. [Some] Unix
> vendors are unhappy. [Some] hardware manufacturers are unhappy.
> 2. GNU LGPL'ed UDI drivers or similar. Linux community are content. Unix
[Some of the ] [, Some
of the Linux community is happy.]
> vendors are content. [Some] hardware manufacturers are unhappy.
> 3. Closed-Source UDI drivers. Linux community is unhappy. [Some] Unix
[Some of the ] [, Some of the
Linux community is content, Some of the Linux community is happy]
> verndors are content, some are unhappy. Hardware manufacturers are
> happy.

As the principal programmer behind a couple of Linux distributions
(Mastodon Linux and McAfee's WebShield product), I'd be estatic if
I could liberate device drivers for hardware that doesn't yet support
Linux (I even looked into building a NT-emulation layer so I could
use those device drivers when the 3c59x driver was exploding after
only pushing a few gig of data through it.)

Even if the UDI spec is a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy(tm) between
all the Unix vendors and Microsoft to destroy Linux, they have to
get it accepted before they can put in into affect. At which
point I can imagine the following conversation with a hardware
vendor and a Unix representative of the VR-WC.

VR-WC: "We want to to break your UDI driver now, so that
systems that depend on it will fail."

Hardware vendor:
"Why?"

VR-WC: "It's time to kill Linux now!"

Hardware vendor, looking at 500,000 seats of proprietary Unix
A vs 25,000,000 seats of Linux, 1,000,000 of
which are using their hardware:
"Please go away. I have a gun."

____
david parsons \bi/ "I don't theeenk so, Cisco"
\/

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