Linux to power U.S. Navy drone fleet

“The US government can directly combine GPL and proprietary/classified software into a single program arbitrarily, as long as the result is never conveyed outside the U.S. government, but this approach should not be taken lightly,”
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Isn't that against the GPL? If you combine GPL code with classified code then per GPL rules the GPL code plus the modifications (the classified portion) must be released as source, no?

dequadin said:
Ground control software, not the drone software.
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Drone software isn't likely to be MS based either.
 
HavocXphere said:
Isn't that against the GPL? If you combine GPL code with classified code then per GPL rules the GPL code plus the modifications (the classified portion) must be released as source, no?
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I think you missing the point of GPL.

You can do with it as you please, hell you can even convert it to Windows for all they care. What GPL force you to do is that the moment you share it you have to give it with the same permission as you got it. So if you made changes to GPL code you have to share that changes. If you included or replaced GPL libs/programs with your own no one can make you share that.

So you can make your own distro for internal use and do what you feel like in house.

NSA did this for years, but recently made some of the changes available for public. See http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux/ I have a feeling the US would most probably use this distro as well for the drone fleet.
 
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