We contacted Netgear to receive their perspective on the issue, and they wrote back to let us know that their Senior Product Line Manager Som Pal Choudhury has written a post which describes Netgear’s stance.

Networking company Netgear has been accused of breaking open-source licensing conditions, by shipping a Linux-based router without source code.

Good news for all hackers. NETGEAR launches Open Source edition of wireless-G router enabling Linux developers, geeks, hackers and enthusiasts to create Firmware for specialized applications

The NetGear RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB (WNR3500L) offers an 802.11n WiFi access point, boasting up to 300Mbps bandwidth, five gigabit Ethernet ports and USB storage access.

Operating systems drive devices. Linux is driven by open-source imperatives. So, naturally, Linux's kernel developers have a problem with closed-source kernel modules. And, just as naturally, they've hacked up a statement they hope will discourage the closed and encourage the open.

Open source networking vendor Vyatta is rolling out the latest community edition of its routing software, continuing efforts to target Cisco users in a battle for a slice of the multi-billion-dollar router market. But while Vyatta Community Edition 3 (VC3) adds new features, users of Vyatta's subscription-based edition may not notice much change.

"They've taken a community-developed kernel module and have modified it, and then released the result as a binary-only kernel module without including the source or at least posting an offer to obtain the source to the kernel module," wrote morgan_greywolf on Slashdot. "That's a direct letter violation of the GPL. Sounds like the author of asus_acpi has a lawsuit

One long-running controversy in the open source community has to do with device drivers and whether binary modules (proprietary code provided by device manufacturers, such as Nvidia) should be allowed within the Linux kernel.

Insisting that they have "repeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and the greater Linux ecosystem," today the Linux kernel community has started petitioning for open-source modules and open-source drivers for the Linux kernel.