RE: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers

From: David Schwartz
Date: Sat Feb 17 2007 - 18:04:32 EST



> You're saying that there's no other way to interface device drivers to
> an operating system than the current Linux driver model?

Interfacing an X1900 graphics card to FreeBSD and interfacing an X1900
graphics card to Linux are two different ideas. They are *not* two
expressions of the same idea.

> That's
> strange, since it's a different driver model than Linux had
> previously, and it's also different from the BeOS driver interface,
> etc. If the Linux driver interface is protectable, it doesn't seem
> like scenes a faire applies.

These are all diferent ideas. Scenes a faire applies to how you express a
given idea, not other ideas you could possibly express. (This is explicitly
addressed in the decision.)

Otherwise, there would be no scenes a faire. Perhaps you cannot make a
western without a shootout at high noon, but you can make a romance.

DS


-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/