Quote from: warpcafe on 2010.03.05, 14:46:51
Hey all,
for me, the most interesting part here is not "is that Kernel legal or not". Because:
The thing is (and you can twist your mind as far as you want, it will not change anything): It is illegal.
If you disagree, simply think
a) would IBM allow you distribute a patched Kernel (even if it is free)?
b) would Mensys gladly support your bug tickets with a patched kernel?
Cheers,
Thomas
Good post Thomas, but there is a perfectly legal way around this - distribute the patch file and mechanism that allows users to patch their own copy of 14.104a into the OS/4 kernel. Thereby no copyright binary code is distributed.
With regard to Mensys, my worry is that they will want a working ACPI - which, I suspect, will only be acheivable with the patched kernel. ACPI, on 14.104a, is broke and hangs badly. Besides, Mensys already have a 'beta' eComstation kernel, with the 'patched' extra HLT parts in it - but I suspect that the whole licensing argument (as per your post) prevents even Mensys from distributing it properly. Although, of course, only really Mensys are able to comment on that authoritatively!
Moby.