Novell could be banned from selling Linux

[feenberg at nber.org (Daniel Feenberg)]

On Sun, 4 Feb 2007, Martin Owens wrote:

> It's odd, perhaps either they own a small piece of the kernel as a
> group or they have one or two of the kernel develops asking for help
> because I've seen them go after linux misuse in routers and the likes,
> and I don't even know if they use the gnu toolchain; although on
> consideration it's probably likly most people use some of the gnu
> tools in their distribution.
>
>

FSF holds copyrights to many of the non-kernel programs used in all Linux 
distributions. These are licensed under GPL version 2. If FSF offers newer 
versions of the these programs under GPL version 3 then Novell will have 
to choose between offering older versions of the programs (FSF can't take 
away permissions it has already granted) or repudiating its deal with MS 
and taking the newer (possibly better) versions from FSF.

It is hard to know how it will turn out, but I expect Novell would be 
tempted to stick with the version 2 programs, perhaps forking them with 
improvements as required, or substituting FreeBSD versions. The most 
critical FSF programs are GCC and libraries. Since Linus has said he is 
sticking with version 2, they can safely stick with whatever the last GCC 
version is licensed under version 2. There could be a standoff for many 
years before either party felt compelled to give in.

An earlier poster suggested that the improved - Vista compatible SAMBA 
would be version 3. I can imagine Novell (possibly with MS help) forking 
SAMBA and offering a version 2 licensed SAMBA. They would have to compare 
the cost of repudiating the MS deal with updating SAMBA on their own. This 
would be a comparison of millions of dollars to thousands of dollars, so 
it might be an easy decision.

FSF isn't the only source of Unix tools, and many authors, presented with 
the opportunity to be included in distributions if they stick with version 
2 may offer their code in version 2 as well as in version 3 through FSF. 
So Novell has the possibility of obtaining improved versions of many of 
the tools through other sources.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Daniel Feenberg



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