Re:Not necessarily a violation. (Score 1)

Even if all they are doing is using Linux to get the machine in a know state, they are distributing that linux kernel with their product. As such they are required to include a copy of the GPL and make the source code available. If they have modified it, then they need to make the modified source code available. Depending on what they are doing, there might be a good chuck of their code that is not GPL, but they must still follow the GPL license for the parts that are not.