Closed source modules will be banned from kernel?
Alan Cox
alan at lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk
Mon Jul 7 18:51:51 UTC 2008
> Closed source kernel drivers would not be allowed to run under new kernels?
You'd need to ask a lawyer but a lot of us take the view that they are
not anyway.
> Does this mean that a new nvidia driver would not work anymore :(
No. The statement is a position, not a decree from on high, and even if
it was a decree from on high (which wouldn't occur) you could change the
source to undo it ;)
> I also understand that kernel developers would build drivers for companies if they asked, what about if a company died out, would that offer hold?
If there is sufficient documentation to write a driver there are people
who want to write drivers for stuff. It doesn't really matter whether the
hardware is without a vendor or not.
> Thank you for any answers provided (good or bad). The users need to be informed and then later find out that binary drivers would not be allowed, unless one builds a custom kernel? or does that matter here?
Binary modules usually last only a few releases before changes in the
kernel break them by accident anyway so I would assume that if a binary
driver vendor goes under the clock is ticking.
Alan
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