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Passing the Baton

grsecurity.net

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Re: Passing the Baton

#81
post #80
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you first quoted 80% and chided me for not reading the article linked to because it supposedly implied/had it in there. Sorry, I assumed that 80% and 86% were close enough that a reasonable reader would be able to see that I had mis-remembered the second significant figure for statistics I heard a while ago. My apologies. > easy test: would you continue to work on linux with the same pace/effort if your company sto…

> Sorry, I assumed that 80% and 86% were close enough that a reasonable reader would be able > to see that I had mis-remembered the second significant figure for statistics I heard a while ago. vs. >>and the source of those numbers is...? >GregKH, who you linked in a cousin comment. the article i linked to has neither number. > An employer pays you to solve technical problems that rise from their business not at all.…

> yet you somehow failed to tell that to your employer

Were you involved in my hiring process? Are you my manager, or a stakeholder in my employer's business? How could you possibly know that I failed to tell my employer that?

> i think you just have a hard time imagining that what customers pay for isn't R&D

I don't have a problem imagining it, I just don't believe that your customers see it that way. If I was a customer of yours, I would expect that more R&D work would happen because I'm paying you (mainly because I firmly believe in free software businesses and that such R&D should be paid for).

> (though we're open to such contract work too).

Heh, so it's not 100% unpaid after all? ;)

> just compare the code of linux 1.0 and 4.11.

Wow, code gets better over time? Holy shit!

> so you can have the last word.

Gladly. :D

Re: Passing the Baton

#82
post #39
post #3

I love how grsecurity is always quick to point out how generous they have been by providing the patches for free. > We have been providing grsecurity freely for 16 years. Meanwhile the kernel upon which their work is built has been provided for free for much longer, and continues to be.

you conveniently forgot to mention the fundamental difference: the upstream kernel isn't developed for free whereas our code has always been. changes the equation quite a bit, doesn't it?

Then find someone interested in paying for its development?

Security improvements to Linux are great. However a hardened linux kernel is a derived work of the kernel.

It's unethical to take free software, build upon it, redistribute to customers but under contract agreements which prevent them from exercising their freedoms afforded by the license of the kernel.

If you think the linux kernel is crap, you are more than welcome to write your own kernel.

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