Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 8th Jan 2008 23:18 UTC
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, still has no plans to license the Linux kernel under version three of the GNU GPL anytime soon. Torvalds, a vocal critic of GPL v3 while it was being drafted, prefers GPL v2, he told Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, Jan. 8 in the first in a series of podcasts titled 'Open Voices', which will feature the industry's top open source and Linux leaders. Torvalds also said Linux was the project that made the split clear between the religious belief in freedom advocated by the Free Software Foundation and the technical superiority that open source and Linux have always been about.
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Member since:
2005-07-07
Come to think about it, I wonder what makes Open Solaris so special that Linus is willing to follow it and only it on the GPLv3 issue. Why Open Solaris? How is it and Sun's stance relevant for Linux? I would've understood if he said "I'll do it if enough other big FOSS projects do it". Or "I'll ask the opinion of major Linux distro makers". But Open Solaris and Sun? Why? Because he thinks they'll never do it and thinks of it as an excuse along the lines of "when I see pigs fly"?
You're taking a highly cynical view with no basis whatsoever. Perhaps he's waiting for Sun to migrate Open Solaris to GPLv3 because if anyone is going to be encumbered by patents and copyrights, it's going to be Sun. Seeing how they make the move, learning from the difficulties they faced and perhaps seeing their motivation for such a move.
Fact of the matter is, GPLv2 works now. It's worked for the last 20 years or so. There is no reason to undertake a huge effort that will take hours of man power just to change something that has practically no visible benefit.