Hi,

please note that I speak as a happy SUSE user and not for anyone else.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb:
> SUSE/Novell has announced that non-GPL kernel modules will no longer be
> part of future Novell products.
> Since SUSE Linux 6.3, AVM has been providing pre-compiled drivers for SUSE
> Linux. Since the release of SUSE 8.1 in September 2002, AVM drivers have
> been integrated into SUSE Linux distributions. Each time a new SUSE Linux
> Version beta cycle starts, AVM provides the latest drivers and Karsten Keil
> does an excellent job integrating those drivers. Therefore, a new SUSE
> Linux release goes hand in hand with the latest AVM driver development. At
> present, nearly the entire AVM product portfolio comes up with SUSE
> pre-compiled modules for ISDN and DSL devices and as such is part of the
> SUSE distribution:
> 
> AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card Classic
> AVM ISDN-Controller A1
> AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card PnP
> AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card PCI / PCI v2.x
> AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card PCMCIA
> AVM ISDN-Controller A1 PCMCIA
> AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card USB
> AVM ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card USB v2.x
> AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL
> AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL v2.0
> AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL USB
> AVM DSL/ISDN-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL USB v2.0
> AVM DSL-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL USB analog
> AVM DSL-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL SL
> AVM DSL-Controller FRITZ!Card DSL SL USB
> AVM ISDN-Controller B1 v1.4/v2.0/v3.0 (ISA)
> AVM ISDN-Controller B1 PCI / B1 PCI v4.0
> AVM ISDN-Controller B1 PCMCIA
> AVM ISDN-Controller C2
> AVM ISDN-Controller C4
> AVM ISDN-Controller T1
> AVM ISDN-Controller T1-B
> AVM FRITZ!X USB/ v2.0/ v3.0
> AVM FRITZ!X ISDN
> AVM FRITZ!Box
> (AVM WLAN-Controller FRITZ!WLAN USB Stick)


And all the following drivers are GPL and are still included:
ISDN4Linux: PCMCIA client driver for AVM A1/Fritz!PCMCIA cards
AVM Fritz!PCI/PnP ISDN driver
CAPI4Linux: PCMCIA client driver for AVM B1/M1/M2
CAPI4Linux: Common support for active AVM cards
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM C2/C4 cards
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM PCMCIA cards
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM T1 HEMA ISA card
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM T1 PCI card
CAPI4Linux: DMA support for active AVM cards
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM B1 ISA card
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM B1 PCI card
(the strings above are the module descriptions)

The following drivers have a proprietary license and are gone:
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card Classic
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL v2.0
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL SL
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL SL USB
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL USB v2.0
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL USB analog
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL USB
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCI
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCMCIA
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PnP
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card USB v2
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card USB
CAPI4Linux: Driver for OEM FRITZ!X USB
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!X USB/FRITZ!X ISDN

Of the proprietary drivers, all USB drivers could be migrated
to userspace with libusb as Greg Kroah-Hartman suggested. This
would allow to keep them proprietary yet keep them out of the
kernel. Problem solved for them.

This leaves the following drivers with a problem:
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card Classic
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL v2.0
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card DSL SL
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCI
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PCMCIA
CAPI4Linux: Driver for AVM FRITZ!Card PnP


What exactly was the reason to keep the drivers proprietary?
* telecom regulations?
* patents?
* proprietary code from a third party?
* technical reasons?

Besides the code for fax/modem emulation, is there anything
that requires proprietary code? If not, then users could at
least have basic functionality with a GPL driver, enough to
download the proprietary driver with all the features.


Regards,
Carl-Daniel

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