Net Integration's NITIX OS

[Brian Kelsay]

DCT Jared wrote:
> 
> http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_10/raymond/#d8
> (eric s raymond on the reputation economy)
> 
> Now,,, all of that being said, I want to return to Jonathan Hale's
> original concern which was NITIX, whom he deems to be actively hiding
> their source code. The question for NITIX is still valid: "Where is the
> source code for your modifications? You don't have to provide it
> to me, but could you please point me to someone who can?"
> 
> (If the answer is no, then NITIX's value in the reputation economy
> just decremented: $nitix--;)
> 
> As Oren says of MS "We don't have to bash Microsoft; their
> short-sighted strategies will do them in all of their own accord."
> 
> -Jared

Linksys recently came under fire for selling a wireless AP that used a 
modified Linux kernel and not providing source to the changes that made 
this possible.  It's not that they weren't providing source to everyone, 
but they weren't providing source to anyone.  They were obligated to 
provide source to the purchasers of the AP.  They judged they were 
likely to lose tons of geek business and so released the source even 
further.  Anyone can download the source from their website now.  This 
was an important step for the GPL.  Companies realize they can make 
money on hardware running open source software, but they must keep in 
mind the sense of community surrounding it and they must realize that 
they would lose in more ways than one by trying to keep the source secret.

The argument against Linksys was that they had a choice when deciding 
what to use in their AP.  They could have used a BSD and kept the source 
closed.  They could have used a proprietary OS and paid per unit 
shipped.  Or they could choose Linux and face wrath if they don't follow 
the license.

The most important thing to you and me that came out of this was respect 
for the GPL and some driver code to get a wireless chipset working under 
Linux as I recall.  Also, if you are a tweaker you can run your own 
Linux on the AP.

This is my remembrance of the story, I could be wrong, check Slashdot 
archives for links and more info.

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