Les Mikesell wrote:
Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> if competitors were allowed to use components from Linux in
>> commercial offerings
>
> They are.
Not in the general case. It would be unfeasible if not technically
impossible to ship a Linux based OS containing licensed copies of all
the components needed to match the functionality of commercial OS versions.
I don't believe it. What on Earth is to stop anyone from shipping
a Linux based OS containing licensed copies of everything needed?
I suppose you might argue that device drivers with binary-only
licences are needed, but that's a bit of a stretch. Anybody
can replace all of userland with proprietary licensed alternatives
if they wish. It would be an odd thing to do, but certainly
neither unfeasible nor impossible.
Andrew.