Linked by Henrik Nilsen Omma on Tue 9th Mar 2004 05:48 UTC
You, the reader, are hereby invited to participate in a celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) on August 28th this year. On that day we will stage public events to inform the general public about the virtues of FOSS. We invite you to form local teams and set up tables in town centers, shopping malls, or wherever there are likely to be lots of people on a Saturday.
Permalink for comment
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Hi. I think you misunderstand the GPL to some extent. I understand that you don't like restrictions on behavior that is not overtly harmful to others--even if it is anti-social behavior such as taking the hard work of volunteers created in a spirit of sharing, adding some extensions, and selling it back to them. I don't like such restrictions either.
However, the GPL is really a very pragmatic license. A few examples:
- The GPL has some advantages for a business that wants to harness the power of open development methods. The GPL makes it difficult for would-be competitors to use the embrace and extend approach. Most businesses adopt GPL-like licenses rather than BSD-like licenses when they choose an OSS license.
- The GPL leads to less permanent forking. Forks, especially in the short term, can be a good thing. Forks are a wonderful source of fresh ideas. One advantage the GPL has though, is that forks must also be GPLd, and so the innovations of each fork can always be combined (given enough time/effort) in new and interesting ways.
- The GPL protects our community. The proprietary software companies have all the advantages. They have the money, and they have the power. And they have unreasonable laws helping to maintain the status quo. (Century long Copyright for software is ridiculous.) The only thing that they don't have is an efficient development method. They have to reinvent the wheel over and over to move forward. We don't. When we use a BSD license in some ways we give up our one advantage.
I am not complaining about anyone using the BSD license or preferring it. Just presenting the other side. I hope you will reconsider your dislike of the GPL.