[ILUG] Novell A Linux Leader? GPL 3 and

[Declan Moriarty]

Let me throw in my €0.02 purely as a hardware guy.

The approach of a hardware guy to the problem of keeping code
unmodifiable is to say "Yes, we can do that; we have the
technology". To hell with the licenses.

I would then spec an extra large fpga for an appropiate part of
the hardware and 

	1. Put all the code, in as Read Only Memory accessable
internally only, and the cpu core beside it, and build this into
the hardware. This could, for example read image data from shared
ram (as done in laptops) and perform DRI, outputting the video
data only.
	2. Optionally put the video ram along with control
circuitry in fpga as well, so programs had to write to that via a
publicly specified API or command set
	3. Copyright or patent the interface software (much like
the gif patent), and demand royalties or set license conditions,
and close the whole thing down.

That's all possible with today's technology. The only thing
restraining them is market acceptance. If it were done in tandem
with a quantum leap in the form of a technological breakthrough,
they would succeed.
-- 

	With best Regards,


	Declan Moriarty.