Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Mark Kent on Wednesday 08 August 2007 11:30 : \____
>
>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> Linux kernel maintainer allays fears about forking
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>| Intel is believed to the top contributor to the kernel and its contribution
>>>| only amounts to 4 percent, Gordon said.
>>>|
>>>| "That means no single organisation has the manpower to take the kernel, run
>>>| off and fork it," said Morton. Forking would not be economically feasible.
>>>| The only remote possibility of forking would be if a group of organisations
>>>| controlling about 40 percent of the kernel joined forces and decided to
>>>| fork it, Morton said. He stressed he sees no chance of that happening.
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/07/linux-maintainer_1.html
>>>
>>
>> It's encouraging that he recognises that the issue is economic rather
>> than technical, there is a degree of enlightened realism in the free
>> software world which we do not see in the proprietary world. Having
>> said that, I'm still very concerned that the dangers of binary drivers
>> are not recognised by so many.
>>
> They had this discussion in the kernel mailing list several months ago (accept
> or not accept binary-only drivers). It ended up requiring no change to the
> status quo, but the debate will return in the future. Groklaw discusses such
> as issues as well.
>
I'm sure this cannot go away, it's too important, nay, risky even,
particularly with a new generation of OEM-supplied Linux machines. We
could lose almost all the advantages of free software if we're not
careful. Microsoft would be very well pleased, though.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
