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GPL and BusinessGPL and BusinessPosted Aug 3, 2006 6:27 UTC (Thu) by GreyWizard (subscriber, #1026)In reply to: The PostgreSQL business by dlang Parent article: The PostgreSQL business
The GPL provides a substantial business advantage apart from alternative proprietary licensing: assurance that contributed code can't be used by others who hide further improvements. This is part of the reason so many companies contribute to Linux and GNU even though they compete with other contributors. Each knows the others can't release an improved product without making the source available and so must accept a level playing field. BSD and similar licenses are only more "business friendly" for companies that want to release proprietary software. For the overwhelming majority of companies who don't (and even for those that do in areas where they don't offer proprietary products) the GPL a better deal.
(As for wanting support for experimental projects that the PostgreSQL support vendors don't want to sell, I have had exactly the same experience. No doubt that's a tougher business than selling canned solutions or tightly defined products, but at least there is actually demand.)
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