maemo.org - Talk - View Single Post - Using linux, not maemo.

	Karel Jansens	2006-10-03 , 12:44
	Posts: 3,220 \| Thanked: 326 times \| Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)	#15

Originally Posted by benny1967

I'm not sure how to read this thread; Maemo is Linux as far as any other distribution is Linux... Which means it, of course, is *not* Linux, because Linux is only the kernel and Maemo (as any other distro) packs a lot more around it. Which is good, of course. I wouldnt spend a lot of time with my 770 only watching the kernel booting and rebooting.

But:
There's an interesting point to this thread. Would it be possible (or easily possible, to be more precise) and legal to replace the non-free parts of the software package Nokia ships with the 770 right now and create a completely free system?

Certainly. Why not? The hardware is yours to do with as you please. You might void your warranty by installing different system software and you're not allowed to copy the hardware and sell for profit, but other than that, Nokia has no rights whatsoever to it, once you've bought it.

Which exactly are the non-free parts? What were Nokias motives to have non-free software on a device that was at least somehow marketed as "built upon free software"?

IIRC, the non-free parts have to do with battery and power management. It's a pretty certain bet that the 770 is not APM or even ACPI compliant, so writing software that duplicates Nokia's offering might be non-trivial. OTOH, people have reported serious bugs with Nokia's power management (haven't seen those myself, though), so maybe a fresh look at it might turn out in Nokia's best interest as well. And why should Nokia care if the (new) power management software is open? It'll almost certainly run exclusively on their hardware platform.

As to their motives: who knows? Maybe they outsourced it to people with a GPL allergy. It happens.

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