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Microsoft

Submission + - How Microsoft can lock Linux off W8 PCs (networkworld.com) 3

Julie188 writes: "Windows 8 PCs will use the next-generation booting specification known as Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). And actually Windows 8 logo devices will be required to use the secure boot portion of the new spec. Secure UEFI is intended to thwart rootkit infections by using PKI authentication before allowing executables or drivers to be loaded onto the device. Problem is, unless the device manufacturer gives a key to the device owner, it can also be used to keep the PC's owner from wiping out the current OS and installing another option, such as Linux."

Comment Re:Android is not GPL (Score 1) 198

"Right and if the modifications have absolutely nothing to do with the kernel or drivers then there is no obligation."

No. You must provide either the source or a written offer to provide the source to any third party on request regardless of whether you've modified the GPLed material or not.

Comment Re:Source only for customers, not third parties (Score 1) 198

Yes, but given that the kernel is under GPLv2 (not v2 or later), what GPLv3 says isn't terribly relevant...

Even then, the written offer must be good for anyone who obtains the object code. I download a firmware image from your site? You're obliged to give me source on request. One of your customers downloads a firmware image and then gives it to me? The same applies.There's no point at which it's limited to your customers.

Comment Re:Ship Source? (Score 1) 198

And by "drivers" here, I also mean "board setup code". I can guarantee you that the MSM code in the Google tree isn't going to know which gpio lines are connected to your tablet's LCD power control, even if the CPU happens to be the same one that was in the G1.

Comment Re:Source only for customers, not third parties (Score 5, Informative) 198

Quoting from the GPL v2 section 3(b):

"Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
customarily used for software interchange"

You don't have to choose that option - you can use 3(a) instead, but that means that the source has to be with the device when you sell it.

Comment Re:Ship Source? (Score 3, Informative) 198

The Google reference kernel code doesn't contain the driver code for any of these tablets, and the vast majority of them are based on SoC platforms that don't exist at all in the Google code. The tablet vendors can't simply point at the Google repositories, they're obliged to either ship the source with the devices or provide a written offer to provide the source to any third party on request.

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