Lack of technologically-enforced commit restrictions with the GPL give Linux an edge.

Posted Sep 8, 2006 5:00 UTC (Fri) by pimlott (guest, #1535)
In reply to: Lack of technologically-enforced commit restrictions *with* the GPL give Linux an edge. by xoddam
Parent article: The future of NetBSD

Tiemann is a bit of a visionary in his own right

Fair enough, but he also created a successful business around GCC, and I believe he wasn't the only one.

and certainly wasn't in the operating system business.

I didn't realize you were only talking about operating systems, but the principle should hold for other kinds of software, yes?

Why didn't those companies instead join GNU, if the GPL offers such an incentive to build a commons?

Isn't the fact that GNU didn't work yet reason enough? It seems like commercial interest in GPLed projects develops when the software provides vendors so much value that they can justify giving away much of the value they add themselves. GNU as a whole wasn't there yet. GCC was.