Re: Petreley on commercial support for non-MS OSes

[Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>]

At 06:40 PM 12/31/98 -0500, Eric M. Bennett wrote:

>Sure it does.  The GPL ensures that you can get the original GPLed product
>without any of the add-on bundled items.

No; it ensures that you can get the source code for the GPLed portion.
It does NOT say that Red Hat has to do business with you if you don't
want to buy the entire bundle.

>Linux will still be available without bundled office suites or 
>browsers, 

That distribution, with the non-GPLed bells and whistles, might
not be. And it might not be installable WITHOUT the non-GPLed
installation program.

>>Methinks that you might be drawing an artificial line between OSes and
>>other products. Why grant a special exception for one type of software
>>product? I can see a potential "slippery slope" here.
>
>I'm not saying I think this should or should not happen... just that this
>sort of division is something I can imagine many ISVs finding desirable.
>Companies that make OS enhancements are likely to have a difficult time
>with GPLed OSes, but that doesn't mean other vendors won't forge ahead with
>it despite the headaches it will cause others.

There's a sucker born every minute.... ;-)

--Brett