[H-GEN] Kernel source

[Rick Phillips]

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> So you only get the source if you pay for the powerpack? How did they
> get around the GPL? It was my understanding that you had to
> supply the
> source as well as the binary.

I don't know about that Harry but what you and I have got is pre-release
stuff.  Mandrake has a whole swag of iterations with this release -
Discovery Pack, Desktop Pack. Power Pack, Pro Pack, OEM Pack, Enterprise
Edition and more.  They have been polling their customers to find out what
is wanted and these different packs are the result.  You will probably find
that the different packs have a greater or lesser degree of availability of
source code because, lets face it, 95% of all users just want to install and
go.  It's only people like us who want to play.  The general rule of thumb
is that, the higher the pack (and the more you pay), the more you get.  I
think the Linux community is going to have get used to the fact that some
time in the future, money will have to be parted with.  Linux is no longer a
toy and a lot of organisations spend a lot of time making this stuff more
useable and more feature rich are going to have to charge "filthy lucre" to
stay in business.  One would hope that it will always be affordable and be
able to be used freely within a business or a home.

Evidence Red Hat straying away from the unprofitable Desktop Edition,
Xandros is not free, Lindows is not free, Lycoris is not free, SuSE is not
free but Mandrake is one of the remaining "big ones" which is still offering
a free download.  Their General Manager told me that they are not prepared
to change this YET.  Mandrake and SuSE in the aforementioned tend to be
"bleeding edge", trying very hard to keep up with new hardware releases.
Mandrake, SuSE and Xandros come bundled with binaries to drive a wide range
of Winmodems.  If we remember back just over a year ago, this was heartache
stuff trying to use a non hardware modem.  Gosh, it's hard to buy one these
days.  Laptops are being accommodated very well these days as well.  Debian
will probably always be free but will remain "conservative".  Now THAT will
start a war I am sure.

For the record though, the kernel source code for the download edition
(probably only temporary) is available at
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/raid/4/mandrake/updates/9.2/SRPMS/ along with 248
Mb of updates for 9.2 in the RPMS directory.

Regards,

Rick Phillips
===================
The Tymling Group
PO Box 97
Cooroy Q 4563

Suncoast Technical - Ph (07) 5442 5423  Fax (07) 5442 5712
rickp at suntech.net.au <mailto:rickp at suntech.net.au>
http://www.suntech.net.au <http://www.suntech.net.au>

** Queensland Agent for Mandrake & Xandros Linux **




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