Re: Debian i386 freeze
On Tue, 21 Jul 1998, Richard Braakman wrote:
> The GPL specifically names the kernel and compiler as major components.
> The FSF's position is that these are part of the operating system even
> if the vendor is too lame to provide them :-)
>
The sentence in question also says "and so on" which leaves a lot of
room to weasel. Maybe not in the '70s but today I don't think you would
find anyone who doesn't consider the GUI a major system component.
> The GPL has protection against such trickery built-in: the exemption
> does not apply if "... that component itself accompanies the executable".
>
> So if we declare Qt to be a major system component (and include it in
> the base system, of course), it would mean that KDE debs could be
> distributed as long as they're not part of a Debian distribution.
> That doesn't get us very far :-)
>
Hmmm interesting. How would you prove that qt had been placed there just
to accompany KDE? It could just be a happy coincidence both ended up on
the same CD :-) I think both you and I know the answer to that one but
would a judge?
>
> This section was essential in the days before linux, when unix was
> being cloned tool by tool, and the tools had to run on existing
> (proprietary) unices.
>
> It is still important today, since it lets you distribute GPL'd
> binaries without including the code for glibc.
>
Ok for libc it makes some sense but not for motif etc. A program written
to libXaw looks uglier but runs just as well.
> I don't see any hypocrisy here. The exemption makes it more convenient
> to distribute binaries, without impeding your ability to recompile the
> binaries from source if you want.
I'm all for convenience but seeing FSF toes a strong ideological line, it
doesn't sound good for them to say "but we're allowing this because it's
more convenient." Especially nowadays when there are convenient free
alternatives. It would be for the best if they just dropped this clause.
--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar@braincells.com>
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