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Message Posted: Wed, 25 May 2004 @ 23:56:57 GMT

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Hi,

Interesting reading. Linus can get very heated in his conversations on the kernel mailing list.

To basically summarise.

Any kernel module that compiles and utilises the kernel header has to be made available under the GPL and disclose full source code.

So it seems to me that whenever a company such as nVidia want to maintain their proprietary code, they have to write a piece of glue code, which handles all of the bindings. Therefore only the glue code is required by law to be placed under the GPL and have its source code declared. They then also have to have 2 separate header files for their proprietary code, one for the original and one for the glue code, and ensure the people writing the glue code "NEVER" sees the original header files, so effectively reverse engineers the bindings or you release the header files under the LGPL, which if my understanding is correct allows both sides to use the code.

Complicated, glad I am not a lawyer.

I guess most companies such as Teradata will be waiting for the outcome of the SCO lawsuit before they join the bandwagon.

The next questions, would be:

When Teradata makes use of Linux as the operating system to replace MP-RAS, which distribution will the choose?

Will they select one of the mainstream distributions, RedHat/Fedora, SUSE or Debian.

Personally I think they should roll their own based on either Debian or Fedora. I think the only necessity is that they base it on kernel 2.6+.

Before the nodes go Linux, Teradata could easily make the AWS use Linux. This would make a good trial for using Linux within the company, gaining feelings from their customer base, and would force porting of a lot more of the utilities.

Regards

Matthew Winter

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