Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 24th Nov 2006 23:05 UTC, submitted by SEJeff
Mark Shuttleworth is trying to entice OpenSUSE developers to join Ubuntu. "Novell's decision to go to great lengths to circumvent the patent framework clearly articulated in the GPL has sent shockwaves through the community. If you are an OpenSUSE developer who is concerned about the long term consequences of this pact, you may be interested in some of the events happening next week as part of the Ubuntu Open Week."
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RE[6]: I Invite OpenSuse developers switch to fedora
by Mitarai on Sat 25th Nov 2006 01:18
in reply to "RE[5]: I Invite OpenSuse developers switch to fedora"
Member since:2005-07-28
RE[6]: I Invite OpenSuse developers switch to fedora
by happycamper on Sun 26th Nov 2006 08:47
in reply to "RE[5]: I Invite OpenSuse developers switch to fedora"
Member since:2006-01-01
/* The GPL allows Ubuntu to distribute a modified (an improved) Linux, so it's great that they're doing it. But the GPL requires you to make all your improvements available to everyone also under the GPL, and Ubuntu is not doing that; some of their improvements are not being shipped with the source code, which is a clear violation of the GPL.*/
If you are an ubuntu developer who is concerned about the long term consequences of this pact, you may be interested in Opensuse
Member since:
2005-11-14
Ubuntu already enables proprietary modules by default. For the next release, they'll enable proprietary ATI and nVidia modules by default.
Think of it this way: Ubuntu is going to ship an improved version of Linux (the kernel). The Linux they're shipping supports several hardware that the Linux from kernel.org doesn't support.
The GPL allows Ubuntu to distribute a modified (an improved) Linux, so it's great that they're doing it. But the GPL requires you to make all your improvements available to everyone also under the GPL, and Ubuntu is not doing that; some of their improvements are not being shipped with the source code, which is a clear violation of the GPL.
I know people are going to say that it's important to have hardware just work out of the box, and indeed it is. But respecting the license of the software made available to you is a lot more important than that. If Ubuntu is so concerned about having hardware working out of the box, it could fund projects like nouveau.
And by the way, Novell stopped shipping proprietary kernel modules (SUSE used to ship them) because they decided to respect the terms of the GPL was more important.