Reply to post: Another better question?

Community chest: Storage firms need to pay open-source debts

Nigel 11

Another better question?

Another better question might be "where can I download your source from?", especially if you then really make sure that you can rebuild a working box from that source.

If you can't, it's either a GPL violation (let the copyleft owner know!), or use of the "mere aggregation" exception to tie you in to that particular vendor for support. Should they cease maintaining the software for the hardware you have come to depend on, you may be forced into an expensive hardware replacement for lack of a three-line patch to the bundled software.

These things are not like routers. It's rather more expensive and disruptive to have to junk and replace them if and when a never-to-be-fixed security problem is revealed.

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