Re: [Sheflug] GPL software ?

[Alex Hudson <home [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2003-12-28 at 03:15, Alan Dawson wrote:
> > aland [at] butter:~/downloads/draytek> strings V2K6K250.RST | grep linux
> > linux%@)
> > linux
> >
> > Does this mean its running Linux ( not surprising really )?

I would be surprised, but it could be possible. I would guess it's more
likely to be the terminal emulation or something, since 'linux' is the
name of the terminal we tend to use ;) grep for things like 'vt100', and
see if they occur in similar locations in the firmware.

Better evidence would include finding binaries (look for ELF headers) or
minix filesystems (or similar).

On Sun, 2003-12-28 at 13:21, Denis Nikitin wrote:
> Somehow I doubt it's Linux. Most likely would be some BSD derivative -
> more popular choice for routers due to the GPL license restrictions.

That's a brave assumption. Have you any figures to back up those claims?
All the evidence I know of points to manufacturers not really giving a
fig about the license "restrictions" (whatever you think those might
be), and many primary manufacturers building on Linux which then gets
resold umpteen times (hence all the GPL violations). Names like Cisco
and Linksys produce/have produced Linux-based routers. I can't think of
one that's BSD-based off the top of my head.

I would guess BSD would be a bad choice due to poor portability and
hardware support - Linux is better supported on embedded hardware. Even
WindRiver now support it.

Cheers,

Alex.

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