What is Hackers' Pub?

Hackers' Pub is a place for software engineers to share their knowledge and experience with each other. It's also an ActivityPub-enabled social network, so you can follow your favorite hackers in the fediverse and get their latest posts in your feed.

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Linus Torvalds @torvalds@social.kernel.org
Public

GPLv2 affirmation…

I don’t generally post here as people have probably noticed, but here’s a pdf of a recent court ruling, and this turns out to be the easiest way for me to link to a copy of it, since I don’t really maintain any web presence normally and I don’t want to post pdf’s to the kernel mailing lists or anything like that.

And the reason I want to post about it, is that it basically validates my long-held views that the GPLv2 is about making source code available, not controlling the access to the hardware that it runs on.

The court case itself is a mess of two bad parties: Vizio and the SFC. Both of them look horribly bad in court - for different reasons.

Vizio used Linux in their TVs without originally making the source code available, and that was obviously not ok.

And the Software Freedom Conservancy then tries to make the argument that the license forces you to make your installation keys etc available, even though that is not the case, and the reason why the kernel is very much GPLv2 only. The people involved know that very well, but have argued otherwise in court.

End result: both parties have acted badly. But at least Vizio did fix their behavior, even if it apparently took this lawsuit to do so. I can’t say the same about the SFC.

Please, SFC - stop using the kernel for your bogus legal arguments where you try to expand the GPLv2 to be something it isn’t. You just look like a bunch of incompetent a**holes.

The only party that looks competent here is the judge, which in this ruling says

Plaintiff contends the phrases, “machine-readable” and “scripts used to control compilation and installation” support their assertion in response to special interrogatory no. 4 that Defendant should “deliver files such that a person of ordinary skill can compile the source code into a functional executable and install it onto the same device, such that all features of the original program are retained, without undue difficulty.”

The language of the Agreements is unambiguous. It does not impose the duty which is the subject of this motion.

Read as a whole, the Agreements require Vizio to make the source code available in such a manner that the source code can be readily obtained and modified by Plaintiff or other third parties. While source code is defined to include “the scripts used to control compilation and installation,” this does not mean that Vizio must allow users to reinstall the software, modified or otherwise, back onto its smart TVs in a manner that preserves all features of the original program and/or ensures the smart TVs continue to function properly. Rather, in the context of the Agreements, the disputed language means that Vizio must provide the source code in a manner that allows the source code to be obtained and revised by Plaintiff or others for use in other applications.

In other words, Vizio must ensure the ability of users to copy, change/modify, and distribute the source code, including using the code in other free programs consistent with the Preamble and Terms and Conditions of the Agreements. However, nothing in the language of the Agreements requires Vizio to allow modified source code to be reinstalled on its devices while ensuring the devices remain operable after the source code is modified. If this was the intent of the Agreements, the Agreements could have been readily modified to state that users must be permitted to modify and reinstall modified software on products which use the program while ensuring the products continue to function. The absence of such language is dispositive and there is no basis to find that such a term was implied here. Therefore, the motion is granted.

IOW, this makes it clear that yes, you have to make source code available, but no, the GPLv2 does not in any way force you to then open up your hardware.

My intention - and the GPLv2 - is clear: the kernel copyright licence covers the software, and does not extend to the hardware it runs on. The same way the kernel copyright license does not extend to user space programs that run on it.

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Mitchell Hashimoto @mitchellh@hachyderm.io
Public
Shared by Bozhidar Batsov (a.k.a. Bug)

Ghostty 1.0 came out a year ago today. Since then:

- Command Palette
- Background Images
- Quick Terminal Size
- Graphical Progress Bars (OSC 9;4)
- Undo/Redo Close (macOS)
- Terminal Bell (audio, graphical, and more)
- Custom Cursor Shaders - animations/trails
- SSH Improvements - auto terminfo copying, env fixes
- Quick Terminal on Linux
- Global Keybinds on Linux
- Server-Side Decorations (SSD) on Linux
- Performable Keybindings
- Bitmap Font Support
- Alpha Blending on both macOS and Linux
- Apple Shortcuts Integration (macOS)
- GTK rewrite with native GObject

Coming in 1.3, already in nightly/tip:

- Scrollback Search
- Scrollbars
- Key Tables / Chained Keybinds
- Copy as HTML/RTF
- libghostty started and already shipping in 3rd party production code on all platforms including web

Organizationally:

- Non-profit established
- Subsystem maintainers established with ~10 maintainers
- Community team established with another ~10 members

Commits: 5,154
Unique contributors: 310

See you in 2026. 🚀

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Hacker News 100 @hn100@social.lansky.name
Public

Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20B in cash

Link: cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buy
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4

Exclusive: Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20 billion in its largest acquisition on record

Nvidia is making its largest purchase ever, acquiring nine-year-old chip startup Groq for about $20 billion.

www.cnbc.com · CNBC

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kazuhito @kazuhito@vivaldi.net
Public

歩きに行ってみたい場所だけど、そのうち立ち入り禁止になるかもな

「世界で最も透明な湖」に迫る汚染、観光客が靴を洗うよう指示される理由　ＮＺ(1/2) - CNN.co.jp cnn.co.jp/travel/35242079.html

「世界で最も透明な湖」に迫る汚染、観光客が靴を洗うよう指示される理由　ＮＺ

ニュージーランド南島のネルソン・レークス国立公園の奥深くに、魔法のような青紫色をたたえた湖が存在する。険しい高山の森に囲まれ、コンスタンス湖の氷河水が流入するこの湖は、小さいながらも重要な場所だ。 - (1/2)

www.cnn.co.jp · CNN.co.jp

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[랜선효도] 제주감귤🍊 @jejuorange.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy
Public

[속보] 트럼프 전 보좌관 “한국 국회, 미국 기업 쿠팡 공격…매우 불행한 일” n.news.naver.com/article/029/... 쿠팡 정보유출 책임 거론않고, 美정부 대응 촉구 “한국 국회가 공격적으로 쿠팡을 겨냥하는 것은 한국 공정거래위원회의 추가적인 차별적 조치와 미국 기업들에 대한 더 넓은 규제 장벽을 위한 무대를 만들 것

[속보] 트럼프 전 보좌관 “한국 국회, 미국 기업 쿠...

트럼프 전 보좌관 “한국 국회, 미국 기업 쿠팡 공격…매우 불행한 일”

디지털타임스 | 네이버 · 미국 도널드 트럼프 1기 행정부 당시 국가안보보좌관을 지낸 로버트 오브라이언이 쿠팡에 대한 한국 국회의 규제 움직임에 비판적인 입장을 나타냈다. 그러면서도 그는 쿠팡의 대규모 고객정보 유출에 대한 책임 부분에 대해선

n.news.naver.com

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Mitchell Hashimoto @mitchellh@hachyderm.io
Public

Ghostty 1.0 came out a year ago today. Since then:

- Command Palette
- Background Images
- Quick Terminal Size
- Graphical Progress Bars (OSC 9;4)
- Undo/Redo Close (macOS)
- Terminal Bell (audio, graphical, and more)
- Custom Cursor Shaders - animations/trails
- SSH Improvements - auto terminfo copying, env fixes
- Quick Terminal on Linux
- Global Keybinds on Linux
- Server-Side Decorations (SSD) on Linux
- Performable Keybindings
- Bitmap Font Support
- Alpha Blending on both macOS and Linux
- Apple Shortcuts Integration (macOS)
- GTK rewrite with native GObject

Coming in 1.3, already in nightly/tip:

- Scrollback Search
- Scrollbars
- Key Tables / Chained Keybinds
- Copy as HTML/RTF
- libghostty started and already shipping in 3rd party production code on all platforms including web

Organizationally:

- Non-profit established
- Subsystem maintainers established with ~10 maintainers
- Community team established with another ~10 members

Commits: 5,154
Unique contributors: 310

See you in 2026. 🚀

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[랜선효도] 제주감귤🍊 @jejuorange.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy
Public

쿠팡, 미 정계에 150억 뿌린 보람?…공화당 쪽 “한국, 불량국가 대열” 비난 n.news.naver.com/article/028/... 한국 내 “미국 기업들은 자신들의 사무실에 대한 반복되는 새벽 급습, 미국 직원에 가해지는 범죄적인 위협, 법정에서 증거조작, 변호인의 조력을 받을 권리의 부정들을 보고했다” 쿠팡이 많이 억울한 모양이네요....

쿠팡, 미 정계에 150억 뿌린 보람?…공화당 쪽 “한...

쿠팡, 미 정계에 150억 뿌린 보람?…공화당 쪽 “한국, 불량국가 대열” 비난

한겨레 | 네이버 · 미국 공화당 의원 등이 대규모 개인정보 유출 사고를 일으킨 쿠팡을 엄호하며 한국 정부를 비난하고 있다. 이들은 한국이 미국 기업들에 불공정하다고 주장하며, 쿠팡을 사례로 끼어넣고 있다. 미국 하원 법사위 소속 대럴

n.news.naver.com

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Hacker News 50 @hn50@social.lansky.name
Public

Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20B in cash

Link: cnbc.com/2025/12/24/nvidia-buy
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4

Exclusive: Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20 billion in its largest acquisition on record

Nvidia is making its largest purchase ever, acquiring nine-year-old chip startup Groq for about $20 billion.

www.cnbc.com · CNBC

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HON.jp News Blog @honjp@mastodon-japan.net
Public

新潮社が週刊新潮誌上でおわび掲載へ　コラムへの校閲指摘、修正せず║朝日新聞
asahi.com/articles/ASTDS3GBLTD

新潮社が週刊新潮誌上でおわび掲載へ　コラムへの校閲指摘、修正せず：朝日新聞

　「週刊新潮」が7月に掲載したコラムで、作家の深沢潮さんらが「日本名を使うな」と名指しで差別を受けた問題で、今週発売の週刊新潮が「お心を傷つけてしまった深沢氏をはじめとする皆様に深くお詫（わ）び申し上…

www.asahi.com · 朝日新聞

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