3 ms·
I would not be suprised if it is an offshoot of FreeBSD. That way they could get away from the GPL license altogether and wont violate any licensing agreements
by siffland 7y ago
I would not be suprised if it is an offshoot of FreeBSD. That way they could get away from the GPL license altogether and wont violate any licensing agreements.
If they based it off Linux, unless it was avalible to download online, it would probably infringe on the GPL somewhere. Assuming they care about those things.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- adriantam 7y agoif they moved that way, why they would care about GPL violation?
- kazinator 7y agoBecause each of their copy of Windows is properly licensed now, and they wouldn't want to blemish their saintly compliance record when they switch to something else.
- tombert 7y agoI could be wrong, but I thought the GPL basically said "anyone who has access to the binary must have access to the source code". This is why you're allowed to write a webserver with GPL libraries without having to worry about releasing the code to the users (unless it's AGPL), since the users don't have access to the binary, just the stuff that the binary is producing. If that were the case, I think they'd be in the clear legally to use Linux as long as they offered to provide the source code to anyone in the military who had access to the binary, which wouldn't be the general public. That said, just to avoid the headache, I'd probably choose FreeBSD as well if I were in charge of the Chinese military.
- kazinator 7y agoBecause China and especially their military cares deeply about foreign software licenses? > unless it was avalible to download online, it would probably infringe on the GPL somewhere. The GPL does not mandate redistribution; it imposes conditions on redistribution, if/when redistribution happens. Good luck imposing conditions on what China does "in-house" with some pieces of freeware.