Slashdot: GPL Violation, Microtest’s DiskZerver

“About a year ago my employer, a local high school,
purchased a couple MicroTest “DiskZervers,”
network-attached-storage boxes designed to cache CD images for LAN
usage. We were mainly Netware-and-Win95 at that time, and the
Zervers performed flawlessly in that configuration. But problems
began when the district IT department made the decision to switch
us over to an NT-domain setup. The Zervers, even with their
advertised “Domain Integration” support, didn’t seem to like this
too well, so I dug a little deeper… imagine my surprise when I
found out the boxes are actually embedded 486’s with Linux and a
whole slew of other GPL’ed software, mentioned nowhere in the
manuals or on the accompanying software CD.

Apparently, Microtest (NAS division since sold to XStore ) put
together a mess of GPL software – a modified Linux kernel 2.0.27,
Samba 1.9.x-ALPHA (!!!), the MARS_NWE netware emulator, and GNU C
libraries (libc5), among others, stuffed them on a flash chip in a
drive-bay-size embedded 486-based computer, and sold it as their
“DiscZerver ” product line. They also used some non-GPL packages,
including Apache and Netatalk (macintosh server). Nothing wrong
with their methods, but there’s plenty wrong in their
implementation.

The web interface and proprietary Windows front-end, the only
given methods of configuring the device, refer to the various
services generically, like “Web server,” “SMB server,” “NCP
server,” etc. – there’s no mention anywhere, even in the manual, of
the actual programs being used. Of course along with this is no
accompanying source code or even the offer to provide any, as the
GPL requires.”

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