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Is there any proprietary software in this?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 2:48 am
by onpon4
I see that the front page for this OS advertises, "All our code is open-source, with the majority of the code released under GPLv2 license." But is any third-party proprietary software included?
A particular example: are any proprietary firmware programs included with the kernel ("blobs" in Linux terms)?
Re: Is there any proprietary software in this?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 2:54 am
by yogev_ezra
The minimal floppy image (kolibri.img) is completely open-source. The full distribution package contains some proprietary game resources like doom.wad and quake.pak etc.
Re: Is there any proprietary software in this?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 4:57 am
by onpon4
So, is it just some game data that's proprietary? I don't really care all that much about proprietary data like that, just proprietary programs.
Re: Is there any proprietary software in this?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 12:38 pm
by yogev_ezra
onpon4 wrote:So, is it just some game data that's proprietary? I don't really care all that much about proprietary data like that, just proprietary programs.
That's right - the full distribution package only contains some proprietary game data, but no proprietary programs. The minimal floppy image (kolibri.img) contains no proprietary items at all.
However, we do have some video drivers (ported from Linux) that contain proprietary firmware BLOBs (but they are not part of the distribution package and have to be downloaded separately). But if you don't explicitly download them, then you may be sure that you do not possess any proprietary program.
Re: Is there any proprietary software in this?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 1:30 pm
by onpon4
That's great to hear!
Another question: is this because of a particular policy, or is it just that way by circumstance?
Re: Is there any proprietary software in this?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:23 pm
by yogev_ezra
onpon4 wrote:Another question: is this because of a particular policy, or is it just that way by circumstance?
By circumstance. KolibriOS doesn't support any of WiFi/Bluetooth/GSM/3G/LTE, and only certain video cards (most video cards in KolibriOS work only via VESA). Usually the proprietary BLOBs come with the above devices, but since KolibriOS doesn't support those, we have almost no BLOBs too (no BLOBs in basic image / ISO, and only a few BLOBs in separately downloaded video drivers).
Re: Is there any proprietary software in this?
Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 10:00 pm
by art_zh
onpon4 wrote:is this because of a particular policy, or is it just that way by circumstance?
You should never exclude someone's policy as well.
