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TIL: @tuxedocomputers released drivers for their machines under the , which makes it impossible for competitors and distros to ship them pre-compiled, as that license is incompatible with the 's only license.

They did this purposely, allegedly to "keep control of the upstream pacing" – and want to re-license the code while upstreaming.

github.com/tuxedocomputers/tux

gitlab.com/tuxedocomputers/dev

gitlab.com/tuxedocomputers/dev

gitlab.com/tuxedocomputers/dev

Thorsten Leemhuis (acct. 1/4)

@thibaultmol @tuxedocomputers

Yeah, it's well known that Open Source has always works so well, because it allows authors to control their code.

Ohh, wait, no! It was the other way around: Open Source works so well because people do not have control and thus are able to bring it to levels that seemed unreachable earlier! 😬

@kernellogger @tuxedocomputers devils advocate: They know their code isn't good enough to be included in the kernel itself, so they want to rewrite before that happens. this license allows them to prevent from someone else putting the code in and then going "wow, this toxedo code sucks" and then tuxedo having to go "well yeah, it wasn't ready for kernel merging yet"

@thibaultmol @tuxedocomputers

I'd consider that a lame excuse; just put a "we know the code does not meet the standards upstream expects and are working on a cleaner driver we plan to upstream" into the README while releasing it as GPLv2 – nearly everybody would understand and those who do not fall into the "you sometimes just have to ignore some people" category.

But then others could at least easily borrow parts of the code if they upstream improved or independently developed drivers.

@kernellogger @tuxedocomputers I'm confused what they really 'gain' from doing this (using GPLv3) , it's weird yeah

@thibaultmol @kernellogger @tuxedocomputers " this license allows them to prevent from someone else" - this is exactly something they should not do. We all know open-source compliance releases have poor quality and we do not have problems with that. That's life. But what they did is:
1. Release poor quality code.
2. Restrict community rights of improving it and bringing upstream.
That's a big no-go, big NAK for Tuxedo. Interesting twist, how one can release something open-source but not in open-source spirit.
@thibaultmol @kernellogger @tuxedocomputers Unless they wrote code for something else and ported, their code is derived from GPLv2 work, and Tuxedo can't choose the licensing. What they are doing is likely not legal.