porting from SGIs to Linux?

[Adam Jackson]

On Tuesday 18 January 2005 17:54, Jon Trulson wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Jan 2005, Alan Cox wrote:
> > On Sul, 2005-01-09 at 20:09, Peter Bismuti wrote:
> >> a free version.  Just pay for the commercial version?  Port everything
> >> supported by Mesa, i.e. LessTiff?  This is a lot of work I'd prefer
> >> not to
> >> have to do.
> >
> > OpenMotif is the commercial motif and it's free if you are using an
> > open-source OS (ie for Linux in pretty much any case except when you are
> > using the Nvidia binary video drivers which might be borderline).
>
>          Actually as I pointed out to you some time ago alan, the Xserver
> makes no difference.  Please check the FAQ on the TOG website if you still
> disbelieve me.  It is quite clear.  Under linux, OpenMotif can be freely
> used.  I do not understand why you keep trying to convince (ie: scare)
> others with this FUD, other than I guess you *really* dislike closed
> source drivers.  I do not believe the OP was interested in a religeous
> discussion.

At the risk of continuing a religious discussion, the FAQ really isn't clear 
on this:

---
QUESTION:

How does The Open Group define the term "Operating System" Does this apply to 
the kernel or the complete distribution?

ANSWER:

The Open Group's intent is that this applies only to the kernel of the 
operating system, without regard to any bundled utilities or application 
software. [...]
---

It's not at all clear to me that a kernel that includes nvidia's closed kernel 
driver (or those from matrox or ati or 3dlabs or...) qualify as "open source 
kernels", particularly given the definition being used for Open Source: 
"software for which the source code is available without confidential or 
trade secret restrictions and for which the source code and object code are 
available for distribution without license charges."

$ head -n 9 NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c
/* _NVRM_COPYRIGHT_BEGIN_
 *
 * Copyright 1999-2001 by NVIDIA Corporation.  All rights reserved.  All
 * information contained herein is proprietary and confidential to NVIDIA
 * Corporation.  Any use, reproduction, or disclosure without the written
 * permission of NVIDIA Corporation is prohibited.
 *
 * _NVRM_COPYRIGHT_END_
 */

That doesn't look like non-confidential source to me.

- ajax
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