Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
With respect, Dennis, that is not the case - at least not with the GPL code that I've come across personally. If it were the case, it would be impossible to write any commercial Linux application, because every application links against the Linux system libraries.
The GPL libraries that I've used personally simply stipulate that:
a) You state in the program's documentation or "About" box that the library is being used by the application.
b) You tell anyone who asks where to get the source code for the library.
Using such a GPL library does not make your code GPL. Perhaps there are GPL libraries which do have that stipulation, but I've not encountered them if there are.
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Linux system libraries tend to be covered under the LGPL, which is a different animal. If they weren't, it would be impossible to legally create closed source code for Linux. (Or, for that matter, to create closed source programs with GCC.)
And the case I spoke of is specifically code that links against the Linux
kernel. This would include device drivers (which become part of a running kernel), but exclude applications programs, which just call kernel services.
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Dennis