Re: [dev] GPL free Linux

From: Anthony J. Bentley <anthony_AT_anjbe.name>
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2018 03:29:49 -0700

Hadrien Lacour writes:
> On Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 09:43:12PM -0700, Anthony J. Bentley wrote:
> > Markus Wichmann writes:
> > > Why would you do something so pointless? First of all, licences only
> > > matter if you plan on redistribution, so most here won't care. Second,
> > > all the GPL demands is that you distribute the source, which any good
> > > distribution should do, anyway, right?
> >
> > GPL also demands that you not combine the code with GPL-incompatible
> > terms, even if those terms are free themselves. A ridiculous requirement
> > that violates the spirit and practice of free software.
> >
>
> Even if this discussion is pointless, I'll humour the list; attacking the
> methods and not the goal (which is to eradicate proprietary software) without
> proposing an alternative methode is at best fallacious.

The obvious alternative is to use one of the many decades-old licenses
that do in fact allow code to be combined with practically any other
reasonable license. Eradicating proprietary software is far more effort
than it's worth, whereas making it irrelevant is eminently achievable.

> On the other hand, I'd like to ask why would someone use a non copylefted
> license? Almost all the time (especially for applications, not libraries), th
> e
> main reason is intellectual masturbation, not a concrete goal like GPL's one.

The reason I use non-copyleft licenses is so every person and project
using other free licenses can use, copy, modify, and distribute my code.
Received on Mon Nov 12 2018 - 11:29:49 CET