Harald Welte Exposes Netgear Open Source Router Sham
With his GPL-Violations.org initiative, Harald Welte has often interceded on the behalf of GPL licensing. His current bone of contention is NetGear's WNR3500L "open source" router.
Router maker Netgear announced their WNR3500L Wireless-N Gigabit device at the same time as their new MyOpenRouter community. As Harald Welte writes in his blog, the WNR3500L unfortunately has the problem of being "binary-only" kernel mode code and therefore closed source, contrary to its claims of being "open source." Apart from this annoying fact, the binary modules also provide a security risk, notes Welte, because they can't be updated with security fixes.
Welte also sees some questionable legal practices. He feels that the company is trying to avoid copyright claims from writers of parts of the kernel against Netgear's binary-only modules.
Bone of contention: Netgear's "open source" WNR3500L router as part of its MyOpenRouter community offering.
He further argues that Netgear may not fully understand the open source market they're trying to serve and that Netgear should be advised about the community's rules and values. He suggests contacting Netgear product managers "to help them understand the embarrassment and PR impact that they are putting themselves into" with their "open source" claims.
Issue 272/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
News
-
KDE Plasma 6 Looks to Bring Basic HDR Support
The KWin piece of KDE Plasma now has HDR support and color management geared for the 6.0 release.
-
Bodhi Linux 7.0 Beta Ready for Testing
The latest iteration of the Bohdi Linux distribution is now available for those who want to experience what's in store and for testing purposes.
-
Changes Coming to Ubuntu PPA Usage
The way you manage Personal Package Archives will be changing with the release of Ubuntu 23.10.
-
AlmaLinux 9.2 Now Available for Download
AlmaLinux has been released and provides a free alternative to upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
-
An Immutable Version of Fedora Is Under Consideration
For anyone who's a fan of using immutable versions of Linux, the Fedora team is currently considering adding a new spin called Fedora Onyx.
-
New Release of Br OS Includes ChatGPT Integration
Br OS 23.04 is now available and is geared specifically toward web content creation.
-
Command-Line Only Peropesis 2.1 Available Now
The latest iteration of Peropesis has been released with plenty of updates and introduces new software development tools.
-
TUXEDO Computers Announces InfinityBook Pro 14
With the new generation of their popular InfinityBook Pro 14, TUXEDO upgrades its ultra-mobile, powerful business laptop with some impressive specs.
-
Linux Kernel 6.3 Release Includes Interesting Features
Although it's not a Long Term Release candidate, Linux 6.3 includes features that will benefit end users.
-
Arch-Based blendOS Features Cool Trick
If you're looking for a Linux distribution that blends Linux, Android, and web apps together, blendOS might be what you're looking for.