From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263765AbTFHU1p (ORCPT ); Sun, 8 Jun 2003 16:27:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263771AbTFHU1p (ORCPT ); Sun, 8 Jun 2003 16:27:45 -0400 Received: from mail11.speakeasy.net ([216.254.0.211]:32442 "EHLO mail.speakeasy.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263765AbTFHU1o (ORCPT ); Sun, 8 Jun 2003 16:27:44 -0400 Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 16:41:21 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v552) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Re: Linksys WRT54G and the GPL From: greendisease To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <8FD91C2E-99F1-11D7-A998-000A95689082@gentoo.org> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.552) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hey All, A quick few comments regarding this situation. First, we shouldn't rush into anything before we gather some facts. Linksys may not be the ones developing the software for the WRT54G. In fact, many of these router "companies" don't do much besides branding at all. I have spoken to a few friends at netgear and d-link and they confirmed that all hardware and software that is used in their router products is manufactured and developed in asia-pacific somewhere. They just license everything from the manufacturer. Proof of this is that if you cracked open many different models of vendors' routers you would see that the hardware is almost always the same board just in a different case with a different name on it. Someone should look into this and confirm what Linksys does. It may be nothing more than the management @ Linksys not knowing what the product runs and what licensing restrictions apply. Second, Linksys is no longer its own entity since it was purchased by Cisco. We all know that Cisco is very committed to GNU/OSS. If anything comes to a dead end with Linksys we should be able to find some engineers at Cisco that can take care of the situation. IMHO, it looks like some very crafty developers somewhere in Asia-Pacific are hacking this hardware and software and doing really neat things. We should first try to contact these people and explain to them our philosophy and try and get them to join the kernel development activities. After all they are already doing some kernel hacking and maybe based somewhere in a non-democratic country and are therefore afraid to open source their work for fear of political repercussion. Please Consider. Lets try to help before we harm, we might make a few friends. Thanks, Jack Aboutboul