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Results of "downloading compressed program images" request


>>>>> "Joel" == Joel Sherrill <joel@OARcorp.com> writes:


    Joel> There were a number of options mentioned but zlib is my
    Joel> first choice.  The license does not impose any burdens on a
    Joel> system using this library.  zlo appears to be a good
    Joel> technical option but is GPL'ed.

    Joel> Package: zlib Location:
    Joel> http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib License: "BSD style",
    Joel> no liability, acknowledge authors Comments:

    Joel> This is my first choice and provided 3;1 compression on the
    Joel> executable I am downloading.  The license is very nice for
    Joel> use in embedded systems.

    Joel> Package: lzop Location:
    Joel> http://www.infosys.tuwien.ac.at/Staff/lux/marco/lzo.html
    Joel> License: GPL Comments:

    Joel> Technically this looks very nice.  It was designed for
    Joel> real-time compression and decompression.  But the license is
    Joel> the "plain GPL" which presents problems for inclusion in an
    Joel> embedded application.  If the license were less encumbered,
    Joel> then I would be hard pressed to choose between zlib and
    Joel> lzop.

Why does an embedded system impose special considerations for
licensing?  If you are concerned about distribution in binary only
form, this is allowed, provided that you give a reference to where the 
source may be found.  If you make the compression routine a seperate
task and tie it in with a pipeline, then you need not coply with the
GPL for the rest of your system, so what is the problem?

    Joel> I dismissed kermit because I remembered that it could not be
    Joel> included in Linux distributions because of the licensing.
    Joel> That leads me to believe that its license is too restrictive
    Joel> for my purposes.

I think I commented that I did not remember the details here.  Is it
that each user of Kermit must download his own copy, or what?

-- 
--------  "And there came a writing to him from Elijah"  [2Ch 21:12]  --------
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