[SM-Discuss] licensing in the kernel and when not to follow upstream

seth at swoolley.homeip.net seth at swoolley.homeip.net
Sat Nov 29 08:19:55 EST 2008


Do we have a document anywhere that says when not to follow upstream? 

http://sourcemage.org/SourceMage/SocialContract 

Item 1 says, "never include non-free in core" 

The Linux kernel has non-free items: 

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3787736/Proprietary+Firmware+and+the+Pursuit+of+a+Free+Kernel.htm 

I suggest those items may have to go into z-rejected, even for firmware. 

Other times we don't follow upstream: 

FHS violations and INSTALL_ROOTification 
optional patches queried default to no 

An alternative is to make the linux kernel query for the patch to remove 
the blobs, defaulted to "remove" on the iso. 

Section 1 of our Social Contract is pretty clear that we should be 
following the FSF guidelines for a free distro "core", if not 
being entirely free (hence, z-rejected). 

Seth 



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