Netgear slammed for doing the right thing
Summary: I wonder how many times open source advocates need to cry "wolf" when there is no wolf before people stop listening when there is a wolf?
Over the weekend a controversy erupted over Netgear's shipping some proprietary software with its GPL router, the Rangemax Wireless-N.
This is one of those stupid kerfluffles that give open source a bad name.
Harald Welte, one of the good guys, got things started with a blog post titled Netgear trying to fool their users with "Open Source Router," (Picture from Wikimedia Commons.) The text doesn't match the intensity of the headline.
Welte's complaint is that Netgear did not "study the Open Source market that they're trying to address." The company ships proprietary software with the router, then lets users download open source replacements if they wish.
This doesn't please open source advocates, but they're not the whole market for this product. Addressing multiple markets with one router is called marketing.
Netgear's Pat Choudhury explained the company's position at its Myopenrouter web site.
What makes the router open source is that Netgear lets you flash open source onto it. In fact they give you tools for this, and software. They're happy if you do, and happy if you then build applications on the open source software you flash.
But if you don't care, if you just want a super-fast router you can use out of the box, then Netgear wants to have its own software there, software it supports, software it understands. Yes, that's proprietary software. So what? If you don't care where's the harm?
Santa Claus, who does his online business under the name megacoder, immediately chimed in under Choudhury's post with an attaboy, but I wonder how many times open source advocates need to cry "wolf" when there is no wolf before people stop listening when there is a wolf?
Harald Welte has more power than I do, power he has earned over many years with good works. It doesn't matter much when I shoot from the lip. It matters when he does.
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Talkback
So Welte is a 30-something who thinks his $hit doesn't stink...big deal.
Power? Is that something that makes him special? I doubt it.
Is power something that impresses you Dana? I feel sorry for you if it does.
He puts his pants on one leg at a time...just like everyone else. He's no more special than anyone else.
And what's with this GPL licensing any way? I thought the whole idea behind Linux was to have it open to the masses, and let the masses do with it whatever they chose. At least that is what Torvalds had in mind when he "invented" it. So why the license in the first place? I thought the Linux universe was supposed to be Utopian...where everyone played nice-nice with each other...shared code and sang merrily. I guess not. Seems just as perverted as the Windows/Apple universe.
GPL
And what's with this GPL licensing any way?
I thought the whole idea behind Linux was to
have it open to the masses, and let the masses
do with it whatever they chose. At least that is
what Torvalds had in mind when he "invented" it.
So why the license in the first place? I thought
the Linux universe was supposed to be
Utopian...where everyone played nice-nice with each
other...shared code and sang merrily. I guess not.
Seems just as perverted as the Windows/Apple universe.
[/pre]
This router is announced as open source but, because of the chipset they chose you MUST use closed drivers to make it work. There are chipsets with open drivers, btw.
Anyway, the bad guys here are the chipset vendors. They make closed drivers for Linux, which is of doubtful legality.
Torvalds didn't invent the GPL, he simply used it. And, in part, because of it Linux grown so much.
The license is there to make everyone play by the rules: in simple terms it's like this: "You can use, modify and do whatever you want with the software. If you distribute to others you must give them the same freedom you had (aka include all the source code)."
As I said, the bad guys are the chipset makers.
[b]And to Dana Blankenhorn:[/b]
Please note: To even work that router [b]needs[/b] binary drivers the the ethernet and wifi. Please tell me you understand this...
Even though a (partially) hackable router is not bad, it's not the same a a 100% open source router. You can't choose the kernel you want because the binary drivers only work in version XYZ. Over time that sacrifices security and/or functionality. So, i agree that's it's better than nothing, but it would be WAY BETTER if they had a 100% open source router.
I use some "routers" to do various tasks and I carefully pick only the ones that are 100% open source: that gives me peace of mind because they work better (!!!!) and I know that next year I can upgrade without limitations.
It feels good to know that the kernel running on that 1 watt router is the same running in the most powerful supercomputers today. :)
sounds like a big wopty doo about a whole lotta
This is comparable
At least with Windows you kind of know that there is a price increase of sorts due to its inclusion on OEM PCs. You know that because all OEMs install the same Windows software on all their PCs and we have an idea how much MS charges per license. It's tough to determine how much cost, if any, is added on due to the inclusion of this proprietary software.
Freakin bleeding heart liberals.
Why is this concept soooo hard for these tards to figure out. JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN OPEN SOURCE, YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD SOMETHING.
How hard is that concept? Seriously.
I usually dont get mad, but this is just stupid. Yes, maybe marketting's label is not 100% on the mark.. but ffs.
Typical Neo-Con...blame a "liberal".
FOSS Zealots are almost..
When I meet a FOSS Zealot who isn't a liberal, I'll stop combining the 2 together.
Have you met Linux Geek?
I only count..
I picture Linux Geek being this bot that trolls everything, and be on no ones side.
RE: Netgear slammed for doing the right thing
Another way they might be blamed
Why?
If it requires closed binaries/firmware, it's not open source.
<i>IF</i> you can flash open source binaries/firmware, then it's no big deal other than claiming to be open source. That's still bad enough.
If on the other hand, it requires closed source binaries/firmware to operate, then it is not open source. That's bad.
WoW
How about truth in advertising? That would be a good place for Netgear to start.
Now go reboot your Windows box Dana.
RE: Netgear slammed for doing the right thing
Yes they do
I think that the author of the article and most comments don't realize this.
[b]Even if you flash your own firmware you must include the binary only drivers because without them the wifi and ethernet won't work. I'd love to see a retraction from the author, but I'm not holding my breath...[/b]