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View Full Version : So i read VMware broke the GPL?



themarker0
May 11th, 2010, 06:22 PM
I read Vmware's ESX server has a GPL driver in it. Did anyone ever follow up on that?

Bachstelze
May 11th, 2010, 06:29 PM
So I read u liek mudkipz?

Also, even if ESX had a GPL driver in it, that probably wouldn't make it violate the GPL, as long as the sources of the driver are available.

themarker0
May 11th, 2010, 06:38 PM
So I read u liek mudkipz?

Also, even if ESX had a GPL driver in it, that probably wouldn't make it violate the GPL, as long as the sources of the driver are available.

I really don't know. In Linux Pro Magazine in the kernal dev area, it had that, in a recent issue. I wanted to simply know if anyone took it further then accusations.

koenn
May 11th, 2010, 08:32 PM
I really don't know. In Linux Pro Magazine in the kernal dev area, it had that, in a recent issue. I wanted to simply know if anyone took it further then accusations.

There's a lot of linux in ESX. The entire service console (the ESX "shell" you get when you log on to an ESX through ssh) is linux - RedHat based, or so I'm told.
(see also http://www.petri.co.il/5_ways_to_adminster_esx_server.htm )

GPL software os freely redistributable, even embedded in ESXen, as long as you get a copy of the GPL with it, and access to the relevant source code, as Bachstelze said.
I'm not sure how VMware handles that.

themarker0
May 11th, 2010, 10:11 PM
From what i read because how it was packed, and now the entire ESX system should've become GPL now.

phrostbyte
May 11th, 2010, 10:14 PM
The kernel is a bit of a gray area. One could probably argue that Nvidia drivers and AMD fglrx violating the copyright agreement on the kernel as well. Just no one has really been taken to court on the idea of kernel-mode binary blobs (yet?).