Re: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

Posted Sep 23, 2006 9:42 UTC (Sat) by bug1 (guest, #7097)
In reply to: Re: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3 by mingo
Parent article: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

"The moment we try to force people they will do less for FOSS, not more"

Would you prefer Linux (the kernel) be under a BSD license then ?

I believe forcing people to "do the right thing" sets a standard of behaviour that is required to isolate freeloaders and develop teamwork/community.

Cosntructive criticism is usefull, and its good to clarify your objections like this, but Linux made its decsion many years ago when it excluded the "or later" clause. If GPLv3 was everything you wanted you still couldnt switch to it due to practical reasons of getting everyones permission.

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Re: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

Posted Sep 23, 2006 11:56 UTC (Sat) by mingo (subscriber, #31122) [Link] (1 responses)

Would you prefer Linux (the kernel) be under a BSD license then?

not all. I would not contribute to the Linux kernel if it were under the BSD license. As i said in my comment, the GPLv2 gives a fabric of freedom and fairness:

[...] the GPLv2 already gives enough moral and legal background for people to build a community and great free software around - and people are already giving back much, much more to Linux and FOSS than the GPL forces us to do.

In my opinion the BSD license does not achieve that.

Ingo

Re: Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

Posted Sep 23, 2006 12:55 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

people are already giving back much, much more to Linux and FOSS than the GPL forces us to do. [...] In my opinion the BSD license does not achieve that.

It is quite unfair to say that. Have you seen the wealth and breadth of documentation available for FreeBSD, OpenBSD or NetBSD (in many cases much better than for Linux)? The number of contributors for the many Apache packages? Or the SubVersion manuals? PostgreSQL documentation? I wish all GPL-licensed programs were so good in these respects.

No, the crux of the matter lies elsewhere; not in volunteer contributions, but in corporate contributions and sponsorship. Companies must justify their contributions, and a BSD-style license lets them get away with keeping them secret.