yes shade

thanks for naming those non-free software
there are lot of non-free S/W like those

It does not matter much to us now and
maybe the day we want to develop some S/W on the lines of these non-free S/W then we will find ourselves again stuck in those
licenses

regards

I see. This is where the confusion is setting in.

Distributions cannot contain non-GPL'd software on the same media as GPL software. In effect, non-GPL'd software is not part of the distribution. It may be compiled to support the distribution. And it may be available for download or on separate media. But, if non-GPL'd software is distributed on the same media as GPL'd software, then that is a GPL violation by the distributor.

At least that's my understanding of the GPL. SUSE/Novell has Nvidia drivers on their ftp site, but the drivers are not included in the distribution. Novell even supplies non-GPL'd software on separate media in their shrink-wrap package. But, it's not on the same media as the "distribution".

So, somebody again. Please tell me a "non-free" distribution. I asked for one earlier. The GNU.org's words do not name any such distribution.

well , xv is non-free (see the license ,it mentions that it is a shareware)
then i can say slackware(my fav. distro) is a "non-free gnu/linux" distro
since XV comes bundled with it ,i did not install XV on my own

well, there may be many like it

regards

You see, to understand Free / Non-free / Open Source and other such terms one has to go into details of every license. When RMS says that the philosophy of Linux is different from that of GNU, he is basically differentiating Free from Open Source.

It is because of the english, that all the licenses appear to have similar terms. It is because of such wording that Non Free Distributions would be termed as Open Source distributions.

hey i have compiled a free software Q and A in the free software section at
gnulinuxclub.org

regards

Maybe either LFS or Gentoo since the base install are just the base tools which should all be gnu tools.

have you heard RMS on the canadian podcast network www.thepodcastnetwork.com
gnu/linux show. theres an (70 minute=big download) interview there where that question is asked and answered by rms who recommends UTUTO an argentinian distro that is free - ie no proprietary stuff java nvidia. all gpl i think.

While there isn't many, there are some. Although I have no idea how Enterprise uses GNU software and what it's licensing terms are like.

All the BSD's use GCC and some GNU software, but their hope is to replace it with the same programs using the BSD copyright. If this software is ported to Linux I wouldn't call it BSD/Linux though

Stallman has spent 4 years harassing people on the linux kernel mailing list!
he is a burned out hippie from the 60's who should shut his pie hole about the GNU/linux crap and get GNU/hurd off the drawing board so people can use and
experiment with it..........