Re: Mutter with proprietary OpenGL/ES library ??

[Dave Neary <dneary gnome org>]

Hi,

Matteo Settenvini wrote:
>> Is proprietary OpenGL/ES libraries applied by this exception?
> 
> I don't think so. You can work without a HW accelerated OpenGL library,
> by using the software renderer of things like MESA, and your system
> would run all the same (slow, but still run).
> 
> The exception is thought just to mean: hey, if you do a Tic-Tac-Toe
> program for Windows in GPLv2, you don't need to provide also the source
> code or the executables of all the libraries you link to if they are
> critical system ones, like user32.dll, ntoskrnl.dll or, in Unixland,
> pthread.so or vmlinux. It would be unpractical, and sometimes outright
> impossible.
> 
> That doesn't mean you can link to non-GPLv2 executables as you see fit.

Unless you are a lawyer, shouldn't you qualify that with "IANAL"? By who
is the exception "thought just to mean"?

The exception was initially added to allow GNU applications to run on
proprietary Unix systems, with proprietary libc and system libraries.
Since OpenGL-ES is typically included with the system in embedded
environments which support it as part of the standard system, it seems
to me like the exception applies. But IANAL.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
dneary gnome org