Re: Google to launch PC operating system

[Alan Mackenzie]

Tim Smith <reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> wrote:
> In article <4a561002$0$7972$a729d347@news.telepac.pt>,
> Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:

>> > They haven't said anything that I've
>> > seen about the rest of the system other than it will be open source.

>> Well, if they are putting together an operating system and they 
>> already stated that the kernel of their operating system will be 
>> GPLed, then what's missing? If they happen to put up a non-GPLed 
>> window manager does that mean that their OS ceasses to be based on 
>> GPLed code?

> Take a look at their other current OS: Android. GPL for the kernel. 
> Apache license for most of the rest. That's open source, but one can 
> make a proprietary fork of it.

> Google usually doesn't use GPL for code unless they have to. Hence, I 
> want to know why the original poster thinks Chrome OS will be GPL.

I think that's more to do with the OP, Rjack, than any announcement.  He
hates the GPL with an intensity difficult to understand, possibly because
he works for somebody with an interest in disparaging the GPL, though
he's not prepared to shed any light on this.  Maybe he saw another
opportunity to attack the GPL, and in his enthusiasm, didn't quite read
the article through to the end.

I think it's reasonably clear that, like any other GNU/Linux system, it
will be an assemblage of code governed by several different licences.
That's assuming it makes the transition from vapourware to software,
though that's probably a reasonable assumption with Google.

I must say, I'd welcome a system where I can get straight to a browser
without having to go through the excessiveness of X-Windows and a typical
window-manager like KDE or GNOME.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).