Simon Robert wrote:
Benjamin M. A'Lee wrote:
On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 06:26:39PM +0000, Simon Robert wrote:
Whilst it's a good thing that companies are starting to ship end-user machines
with GNU/Linux preinstalled, doing so without complying with the licences is
not only no better than only shipping Windows, it's worse as it runs counter to
the main aim of free software.
its not the laptop as such which infringes the GPL, but the company by
not posting the source code (which they are under no obligation to do
anyhow).
The GPL does require them to make the source code available and the
company are attempting to do so via the website so they are required to
fix their implementation as that is their chosen method of making the
source code available under the GPL.
So this (non) infringement will be solved when they do whatever
it is they have to do with the source code and the previously sold
gizmos will be gpl'd. What do they actually have to do to solve this in
legal rather than best practice terms?
Make good on the promise in the GPL to make the source code available to
anyone who asks. In practice, that means fixing the website because
posting a CD/DVD to everyone who asks is going to be prohibitively
expensive.
Guess it is supply code if asked,
though looking at the standard of english on their website you may have
to request it in Chinese as they can't even spell Debian. Maybe this
whole storm in a teaspoon is down to language difficulties?
Some people have been able to download the source code and unpack it -
things are improving. It's not the all-clear yet but definitely
improving. Asus are "showing willing" which is good.
What was xandro's role in the software development, was it them or assus
what hacked the code? If it was xandros surely it is they to whom one
should turn for source code?
Not sure. The packages are Debian packages, not sure if they have been
through the Xandros process. (Not really sure what Xandros does to
Debian packages to be honest).
come to that I cannot see anyplace on the xandros website where they
offer the source code of their paid for distro for download. also the
same for mepis and yellow dog, so what's the big deal about assus not
complying? 