# 721 Source Code



## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

http://208.45.37.181/

This web page apparantly contains all of the GPL source code from the Dish 721 receiver. Interestingly the bottom of the page says that the page is actually hosted on a 721 receiver connected to the internet.


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## DmitriA (Aug 6, 2002)

Yes, this was released by Dish about a year ago. There is not much of interest there - all the hardware drivers and user-level programs (guide, PVR, etc) are not under GPL


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## gwynnebaer (Jan 20, 2003)

This was done to fulfill the letter of the law wrt. the GPL. It certainly doesn't do much to contribute to the spirit of the GPL, which IMHO would provide the other code under some sort of agreement. What we see is slightly modified Linux source tree without much use to custom modification of the 721.


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## xgrep (Aug 15, 2002)

gwynnebaer said:


> This was done to fulfill the letter of the law wrt. the GPL.


Not to worry, soon all Linux-based systems will be paying royalties to SCO, anyway ;-).

x


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## rcwilcox (Jan 20, 2003)

your link doesn't work


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## gwynnebaer (Jan 20, 2003)

rcwilcox said:


> your link doesn't work


It worked for me. Maybe it's intermittent. After all, it's all run from a 721.


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

gwynnebaer said:


> This was done to fulfill the letter of the law wrt. the GPL. It certainly doesn't do much to contribute to the spirit of the GPL, which IMHO would provide the other code under some sort of agreement. What we see is slightly modified Linux source tree without much use to custom modification of the 721.


Well the other code might have some trade secrets or info that DISH does not want in the open due to piracy concerns, competition, etc, etc.

What is intriguing though is that the page above is ACTUALLY hosted on a physical 721 that they have connected to the internet somehow. This means that they have working TCP/IP code which is actually part of what would be needed for Internet support. It's running a small HTTP server.


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## gwynnebaer (Jan 20, 2003)

Mike Richardson said:


> What is intriguing though is that the page above is ACTUALLY hosted on a physical 721 that they have connected to the internet somehow. This means that they have working TCP/IP code which is actually part of what would be needed for Internet support. It's running a small HTTP server.


The TCP/IP code works fine. I have plugged in a USB Ethernet device and gotten it working, but it's mostly pointless since one cannot easily mess with the OS (due to safety checks in the code, etc.)

My beef is with the fact that they have taken a good design (commodity hardware, open source OS) and married it to proprietary functionality that makes it no better than an otherwise closed system. If you close all the good parts, what's the fun in that?


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## rcwilcox (Jan 20, 2003)

gwynnebaer said:


> It worked for me. Maybe it's intermittent. After all, it's all run from a 721.


you are right it works now


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## marko (Jan 9, 2003)

gwynnebaer said:


> The TCP/IP code works fine. I have plugged in a USB Ethernet device and gotten it working, but it's mostly pointless since one cannot easily mess with the OS (due to safety checks in the code, etc.)
> 
> My beef is with the fact that they have taken a good design (commodity hardware, open source OS) and married it to proprietary functionality that makes it no better than an otherwise closed system. If you close all the good parts, what's the fun in that?


Hum, do you really have a problem with the way dish has done this, or are you just joking?

Just wondering, cause dish has no reason to open up any their closed system. Just doesn't make any sense.


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## DmitriA (Aug 6, 2002)

That's right. They are in business to make money, not to make it easier for you to play around with your receiver (in a way that doesn't get them any more subscription fees from you than what they are already getting) or, even more importantly, make it easier for competitors to "borrow" their ideas and functionality.

Although, I'm not sure why any competitor in their right mind would want to do this - it's not like this is some sort of state-of-the-art receiver with some awesome functionality that everyone would like to copy...


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

xgrep said:


> Not to worry, soon all Linux-based systems will be paying royalties to SCO, anyway ;-).
> 
> x


Maybe this is why Dish has chosen why not to have the 522 Linux based, either that or they want to keep all 5XX series receivers in the same format in which is not Linux. I wonder if they have other plans for future 7XX series receivers.


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