Open Source Archive

David Wheeler does a cross-examination of the GPL and BSD and why the GPL and Linux specifically have managed to attract a larger number of corporate contributors. "If your goal is to get an idea or approach widely used to the largest possible extent, a permissive license like the BSD (or MIT) license has much to offer. If your goal is to have a useful program that stays useful long-term, then a protective license like the LGPL or GPL licenses has much to offer. Protective licenses force the cooperation that is good for everyone in the long term, if a long-term useful project is the goal."

This is a collection of methods and strategies to make income from an Open Source project while keeping it thriving and freely available. The methods take into account project brand strength, and the real opportunities available while owning your project's web space, building up its community, and exploring non-restrictive means of monetizing your efforts.

"The GNU General Public License is one of the most widely used software licenses - and, undoubtedly, the most misunderstood. Some of this misunderstanding comes from hostile propaganda, but some also comes from a lack of experience in licensing issues on the part of both lawyers and lay users, and the use of standard language in conventional end-user license agreements that are unthinkingly coupled with the GPL. In all cases, the confusion is frequently based on misreadings, rumors, secondhand accounts, and what is convenient to believe."

Disagreements over what should be included in the free software license's next version have pitted the movement's leaders against each other. Say the letters G, P, and L in that order around most folks and you're likely to be met with a blank stare. But try dropping them around the open-source crowd, especially in proximity to San Francisco this mid-August, and you'll get a very different response: everything from fist-pumping to hand-wringing.

"The third annual Software Freedom Day will take place worldwide on September 16. Project organizers say the event, designed to raise awareness about the benefits of using free software, is drawing more interest this year than ever before, with participation from 150 countries."

"There are a lot of reasons why people make their code open source. I believe that one of the strongest original motivations has often been overlooked. Our hagiography tells the tale of how it all started with the quest for software freedom. But contemporaneous with Richard Stallman's story, other people were taking the same path (releasing source code) for a very different reason: the architecture of Unix."