* Rasmus Wiman rasmus@wiman.org [070729 14:49]:
Just curious... How about software that runs "on top of" Linuxbios? I assume that Microsoft won't have to release Windows under GPL just because Linuxbios can boot it :) , but what about payloads? If someone wants to create a completely closed-source payload for LinuxBIOS, would theybe allowed to do that? One possible example could be Microsoft. Suppose that LinuxBIOS really took off and Microsoft would want to adapt NTLDR so it could be a payload, would they be allowed to do it?
The payload is "loaded" from an "archive" or "filesystem" by LinuxBIOS and thus does not have to be released under GPL because it is used with LinuxBIOS.
On the Linux side, you could compare this with a tar archive or a filesystem containing both proprietary and open source programs in one entity. This is a very common scenario and explicitly allowed.
The same applies for LinuxBIOS.
Of course any payload that uses/links against GPL code would have to be GPLed because of that fact.
Stefan.