Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause?

Jan-Benedict Glaw
2003-12-10T18:37:29Z

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On Wed, 2003-12-10 10:08:22 -0800, Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>
wrote in message <20031210180822.GI6896@work.bitmover.com>:
> On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 10:02:47AM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> > On Wed, 10 Dec 2003, Larry McVoy wrote:

> Technicality. Which, by your own reasoning, doesn't count. Linux does
> indeed have a binary interface, many people download drivers from some
> website (I've done it a pile of times) and stuck them in and they worked.
> I did that with the modem on my thinkpad across more than 10 kernel
> versions in the 2.2 or 2.4 timeframe.

But guess - that can fire back, too. Just had it these days: I've build
a Linux kernel with, erm, some strange GCC options (hey, I like playing)
and inserted AVM's binars ISDN driver. Guess what had happened then:)

That is, just let's stop to prattle about binary modules. We praddle
(all the time) that there's no thing called an "ABI" in Linux for
modules, but in The Real World, the ABIs of two kernel images are
quasi-identical (except in some instances which can easily be caught by
a wrapper module).

So it's all about *really* changing ABI things here and there. Yes, an
obnoxious pig I am:) I'd start thinking about who I could achieve that
in a working manner...

MfG, JBG

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Jan-Benedict Glaw jbglaw@lug-owl.de . +49-172-7608481
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