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:2006-06-21
I'm not sure that "taking" code is, or should be, the main driver behind a decision such as this. GPLv3 should, IMHO, be considered on its merits first, not because it gives access to a wider pool of code. So basically it comes out that Linus is less interested in the ideology and merits of v3 and more in code this would make accessible. Which is ironic, perhaps hypocritical, and not what he has been saying all along. IIRC, his main objection was the tivoization clause, but now he appears to be singing a different tune.
I'm all for Linux switching to GPL v3, but I think HOW the switch is made is important just as much. Doing it to get more code is whory, IMHO. Doing it by "force", as Bruce Perens suggests, is immoral.
I have to be practical and say that I don't think Linux will be switched to v3 anytime soon. Short of doing it for the wrong reasons and with the wrong methods, there's just no way that all the contributors will agree, and that those that don't will have their code easily replaced. No way.
Member since:2007-09-06
"
So basically it comes out that Linus is less interested in the ideology and merits of v3 and more in code
"
Wait a minute! Linus is less interested in ideology?
hehe.. I couldn't resist being that everything I've read indicates that Linus is more interested in the development methodology and less interested in the ideology. 
Member since:2005-07-20
It's funny how people talk about that as if it's so horrible.
You know, Linux originally took the BSD network stack, right? No BSD community was able to get their work back, since GPL is incompatible with so many other existing licenses, but you don't see BSD projects jumping ship to GPL just to get at Linux code, do you?
I think it's pretty childish to upgrade just so you can steal someone else's code. I use the word "steal" here because they can currently view the code and implement their own from scratch implementation if they really want to, just like the BSD guys do, but instead Linus is openly saying "I'll abandon my moral standing on this if it lets me get a hold of their code!" which is, in my opinion, a despicable statement.
And how does being given away freely (without strange use and distrobution clauses) make BSD less of a competitor? It's not as if people choose not to use FreeBSD because someone else might take some of the code. There are several companies that directly contribute to FreeBSD code. People like to say "yes, but more companies work on Linux!" as if it was a good thing that IBM hijacks the kernel for their own use all the time, causing the whole thing to become slower on desktop PCs as a result. Truly it is a wonder that more projects don't go out of their way to whore themselves out to big companies at the expense of the little users. I can't imagine why that doesn't happen?
Member since:
2007-02-17
Open Solaris (or more completely, GNU/Solaris)
http://www.gnusolaris.org/gswiki
... is the only viable direct competitor to GNU/Linux if it were to be licensed under the GPL. It is not a competitor right now because the OpenSolaris kernel is licensed under the CCDL.
BSD is not a competitor because it is too susceptible to just being taken by some commercial entity with no "give back" obligation (*cough* darwin *cough*) ... so developers are not keen to see their supposed-to-be-open-code being used to rip people off.
There are, apparently by some estimates, the approximate equivalent of 1.5 million FOSS developers. Something over 60% of these release their code as GPL code ... there is a reason for this.
Anyway, if it were to be licensed under GPLv3, then OpenSolaris could include drivers from the Linux kernel project ... but the Linux kernel project under GPLv2 could not use anything back from OpenSolaris. That is probably the driver for Sun considering the GPLv3 in the first place. In order to remain competitive, Linus would have to move the Linux kernel to GPLv3.
Also, AFAIK, OpenSolaris is the only project that Linux actually wants something from. I think it is "zones" that he wants.