Recommendation: no GPLv3 for Solaris

Recommendation: no GPLv3 for Solaris

Posted Feb 10, 2007 16:04 UTC (Sat) by zotz (guest, #26117)
Parent article: Recommendation: no GPLv3 for Solaris

"GPL* licensing OpenSolaris would be yielding to a small vocal minority of FOSS developers who use the lack of GPL licensing, purely as a means of fostering FUD towards OpenSolaris"

You know, I really don't believe this is true. In my case, I like copyleft licenses. (Well not quite, I like how copyleft operates and the licenses implement that.) Because of the nature of copyleft licenses, multiple ones cut down on code re-use and transfer. This is not a good thing for those interested in Free code or other works.

I have never made any call for this to happen, I never imagined that it would, but I think it would be happy if it did. (OpenSolaris going GPL that is.)

If anyone knows how to solve this particular problem of copyleft licenses in a workable way, I am sure they will find a lot of gratitude on the part of many.

We have been talking of this in the last few days over on the Creative Commons lists in relation to CC BY-SA and other copyleft licensesand how it is unlikely that CC BY-SA works will be able to be relicensed under the GPL which some of us would like to see happen if the issues can be resolved.

Copyleft brings a lot of benefits from what I an see, but they are not without some costs.

I have no desire to FUD OpenSolaris. I would be quite happy to see a GPL competitor to what we have now. Multiple in fact.

I wonder if people think others FUD OpenSolaris, the CDDL, or both? I don't recall reading the CDDL, but I could easily see people who like the GPL having issues with another license depending on how it worked. And wanting all other Free Software licenses to be compatible with the GPL in fact, if that is the license they prefer. It is only natural to want to have as much code as possible at your fingertips. Would there be any reason for Free Software people not to want this?

So, in closing, is that statement I quoted actually FUD towards me and others in similar positions? Or are they just not considering the wider world of people interested in Free Software?

all the best,

drew

---

(Log in to post comments)