> clearly a violation of the GPL. It’s not clear, this really is an interesting case. From the description in the comments here, it seems that the GPL code fro

> clearly a violation of the GPL. It’s not clear, this really is an interesting case. From the description in the comments here, it seems that the GPL code from Linux, together with the code to interface with vmkernel is published, complying with GPL for that part. My guess is that VMware considers vmkernel to be the operating system (which it is, albeit a minimalistic one, just the barebones hypervisor) and regard it as GPL code from Linux linking with the glue layer and the vmkernel system library. Which, if it provides some generic interface that the glue uses, arguably is. And that - GPL code linking with proprietary system library - is an explicitly permitted exception in GPL: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#SystemLibraryException http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#SystemLibraryExcept... I am just guessing here, but seen like this, VMware’s position makes sense. I would be surprised if they all-out violated GPL, Linksys-style, to be honest, because some competent FLOSS folks work(ed) there.