Novell could be banned from selling Linux

[Matthew Gillen]

Kristian Hermansen wrote:
> On 2/4/07, Matthew Gillen <me at mattgillen.net> wrote:
>> IANAL, but my half-a$$ed understanding is that FSF can't block
>> distribution
>> of some key parts of Linux (such as the kernel, apache, etc), even if
>> they
>> are distributed under the GPL.  But they do own the copyrights (and can
>> therefore change the license at will) for a lot of user-space tools that
>> would make it pretty hard to build a usable system without.
> 
> I don't get it.  Linux is merely a kernel with free tools on top of
> it.  If the FSF has no control over the kernel, then they have no
> control over Linux.  What am I missing about this article?  If that is
> true, then shouldn't the article say something about inability to
> redistribute GNU tools, not Linux?

Right.  But that's a distinction that's hard to explain to journalists.  To
the journalists defense, many people lump everything that comes with a
distribution as "Linux", since the kernel by itself isn't that useful.

Matt

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