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> Where in The Free Software Definition https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html does it require the user
by pksadiq 9y ago
> Where in The Free Software Definition https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html does it require the user to be able to run the modified versions on the same device?
Quoting from the above link:
Freedom 1 includes the freedom to use your changed version in place of the original. If the program is delivered in a product designed to run someone else's modified versions but refuse to run yours — a practice known as “tivoization” or “lockdown”, or (in its practitioners' perverse terminology) as “secure boot” — freedom 1 becomes an empty pretense rather than a practical reality. These binaries are not free software even if the source code they are compiled from is free.
- nailer 9y agoYes, you can have non-free binaries, but from that same quote: the source code to build them is still considered free.