Subject: GPLed AbiWord with QNX/Photon
sterwill@abisource.com
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 13:02:44 CST
Thomas Fletcher wrote:
> No worries here ... you can just think of QNX as another
> Unix. You can buy the core OS ... which comes with the
> standard libraries and API's. Then you can buy the windowing
> system ... which comes with a standard/documented API and
> programming tools. The main difference here is that because
> QNX is a micro-kernel you can in fact just buy the components
> that you need. There is lots of other GPL software running
> on it so I don't think that this is any kind of an issue.
> There are no secrets hidden in the AbiWord code, all just
> standard API calls.
But the windowing system is what concerns me. As I understand it,
the GPL has been historically interpreted to allow applications
linked with Motif only because Motif was shipped with the vendor's
operating system and was not something licensed later. I've
CC'ed Richard Stallman on this note in hopes that perhaps he's
examined the QNX/Photon thing in the past or knows of such a
discussion.
The reason that GPLed applications can link with X Window System
libraries is that (1) it is commonly shipped with Unix and (2)
many implementations of it are free software, so (1) often
does not apply.
> > Now to come to the point: is Photon (and all of the libraries or
> > run-time environments that AbiWord for QNX would need) "normally
> > distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major
> > components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating
> > system on which the executable runs"?
>
> Yup ... If you buy the photon window manager components then
> you would be able to run a binary version of AbiWord. If you
> buy a development kit (compiler etc) then you could compile
> your own version of AbiWord.
But to be clear, the Photon windowing stuff is not "normally distributed
(in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler,
kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs"?
The GPL provides the last fragment of that sentence: "...unless that
component itself accompanies the executable." Photon is not freely
re-distributable, is it?
I'm afriad that QNX's modularity (in engineering, but more importantly
licensing) could be the reason why AbiWord could not link with QNX's
windowing system libraries.
-- Shaw Terwilliger
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Dec 21 1999 - 13:02:45 CST