[linux-elitists] Okay... so now how do I get...

[Don Marti]

begin Rick Moen quotation of Thu, Dec 14, 2006 at 03:01:59PM -0800:

> To very slightly misquote Douglas Adams, "To summarize the summary of a
> summary: mulish hardware companies are a problem."

Some if it is just plain corporate inertia --
sometimes it's easier for Management to put a
developer to work trying to play catchup maintaining
a proprietary driver than to come up with a GPL
release policy.

In the early days of LCD panels, some vendors
redefined a "good" panel as one with fewer than n
bad pixels.  Buyers defended themselves with "no bad
pixels" terms in purchase orders.

A vendor sales person with a signed purchase order
from you is a powerful tool for shaping vendor policy
your way.  You're talking someone who knows how to
persuade, who knows who the players at the company
are, who has an incentive to make things come out
your way.

I'm thinking about drafting some boilerplate text
that hardware customers could start sticking into
purchase orders.


  GPLv2 or Compatible Device Driver Support

  The following items are "Linux Hardware" for the
  purposes of this purchase order requirement:

    ("all", if you're just ordering Linux boxes,
    or list which systems are to run Linux otherwise)

  Vendor warrants and represents that any and all
  Kernel Software pre-installed on the Linux Hardware
  is licensed to Purchaser under terms that allow
  Purchaser to redistribute the Kernel Software to
  anyone under the GNU General Public License, version
  2, as published by the Free Software Foundation
  (GPLv2).

  Vendor warrants and represents that the Linux
  Hardware functions substantially in accordance
  with its specifications without requiring anyone to
  install, run, or accept the license of any Kernel
  Software not licensed to Purchaser under GPLv2.

  If any support, update, or software maintenance
  services are provided under the terms of this
  Purchase Order, Vendor warrants that any and all
  Kernel Software provided as part of such services
  will be licensed to Purchaser under terms that
  allow Purchaser to redistribute such Kernel Software
  under GPLv2 to anyone.

  Vendor warrants and represents that any
  replacement hardware provided under the terms of any
  warranty covering the Linux Hardware will function
  substantially in accordance with its specifications
  without requiring anyone to install, run, or accept
  the license of any Kernel Software not licensed to
  Purchaser under GPLv2.


Need a definition of "Kernel Software".

-- 
Don Marti                    
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti@zgp.org           LinuxWorld: August 14-17, 2006, San Francisco