make kernel driver closed

[Jeff Haran]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: kernelnewbies-bounces+jharan=bytemobile.com at kernelnewbies.org [mailto:kernelnewbies-
> bounces+jharan=bytemobile.com at kernelnewbies.org] On Behalf Of Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu
> Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2014 8:11 PM
> To: Alexandru Juncu
> Cc: Richard Weinberger; phani kumar; kernelnewbies
> Subject: Re: make kernel driver closed
> 
> On Sat, 25 Jan 2014 15:43:19 +0200, Alexandru Juncu said:
> 
> > That is not true. Technically speaking, you could do that. Think of
> > drivers from vmware or nvidia.
> 
> The only reason NVidia gets away with it is because it's not actually
> a Linux driver.
> 
> To save Phani the trouble, I'll point at this quote:
> 
> > Description: I have driver, I want make it non-open source. how can I do it?
> 
> The fact you have a Linux driver means you can't use the NVidia loophole.
> 

There are lots of companies with closed source Linux drivers. My former employer Brocade Communications Systems wrote, maintained and shipped their Fiberchannel stack Linux drivers consisting of tens of thousands of lines of closed source code for years and though I am no longer with that company to my knowledge they continue to do so today. That code is in every Brocade Fiberchannel switch out there unless you happen to have an old VxWorks based model that's well over 10 years old and no longer under service contract. And they aren't the only ones.

Granted all the reasons posted for open sourcing your kernel code are valid and it's the right thing to do for the community and all that, but let us not engage in this fantasy that it's impossible to write, maintain and ship closed source Linux drivers for years with no apparent legal repercussions.

Jeff Haran