David Mosberger-Tang wrote to linux-kernel
Disclaimer: I happen to be an HP employee but I’m making the
following comment as an individual and what I’m saying is my own
opinion. I decided to send this mail because there seems to have
been some confusion as to what state Linux for IA-64 (and Merced)
is in.
First off, if you have a chance, I’d like to invite you to
attend my talk on Linux/ia64 at Linux Expo ’99 in Raleigh, NC
(http://www.linuxexpo.org).
As a quick summary, let me say that HP Labs has been working on
bringing Linux to IA-64 (and Merced) for over a year now. We view
this project as a regular Linux project except that there is a bit
of a constraint due to the fact that IA-64 is still under
non-disclosure. Thus, at this point we can’t invite everybody to
join the development, but as usual in a free software project,
everybody who can contribute is welcome to do so. Also, the result
will obviously be available under the GPL as soon as IA-64 machines
are generally available (and yes, we’re very careful to do
everything according to the letter of the GPL, so please don’t let
this degenerate into a legal issues discussion).
I realize the above may read a bit cryptic, but what I’m trying
to say is that I really hope that the fact that companies are
starting to make real money from Linux won’t mean that Linux
developers will stop working together.