Many devices, speaking of small, so called 'embedded devices' use Linux as their Operating System nowadays. The vendor of such a device - if it runs Linux - must of course supply you with the sourcecode they used and modified (according to the GNU GPL (see http://www.gnu.org/). Somehow, the vendors don't like the idea of giving out the sourcecode much, although they like the idea of using publically and openly available source code very much (..).

This is, where we can try helping ourselves. Those vendors should be sewed, no question, but we - first of all - take the approach of reverse engeneering and re-building the operating system ourselves, which is indeed much more interesting :-)

Vendors which use Linux and don't yet comply with the GNU GPL can be found at the following webpages:

• The BusyBox? Hall of Shame http://www.busybox.net/shame.html
• A 'starting' website about GPL violations: http://www.gpl-violations.org/
• various other websites; feel free to add some.

Another vendor, which did not comply with the GNU GPL is Siemens. Siemens offers various kinds of DSL routers, some with integrated WaveLAN?.

They claim that the sourcecode for their model gigaset SE series is offered at the following website:

• http://now-portal.c-lab.de

But somehow.. you will only find the sourcecode for the SE505? router, which only consists of the vanilla tarballs for kernel + used utilities.

The SE515? router, they say, is only an OEM model which is not supported by Siemens. I wonder why it has the name SIEMENS on it - and why they shouldn't be liable for breaking licenses.

However, here, the SiemensSE515 link takes over :-)