Why Torvalds is sitting out the GPLv3 process (Linux.com)

Posted Sep 27, 2006 1:16 UTC (Wed) by Zack (guest, #37335)
In reply to: Why Torvalds is sitting out the GPLv3 process (Linux.com) by mingo
Parent article: Why Torvalds is sitting out the GPLv3 process (Linux.com)

>the big difference is: if you are unhappy with Linus you can fork the Linux codebase and try your luck. That keeps Linus honest and sharp every day. If he messes up, people will leave his project.

The same goes for GNU or any GPL licensed software.

>On the other hand the FSF licensing process cannot be "forked". What RMS decides goes into the GPLv3. No matter what the "Committees" do, or what the "comment submitters" do. There's no competitive pressure whatsoever to keep him honest or sharp.

There is competitive pressure. People will simply not use it. New projects will see the wisdom in Linus' approach an go GPLv2 only or another license.

>Look at the RMS quotes i linked to: "Most of our community does not believe in free software". And the GPLv3 process very much reflects this belief of him:

What rms says or believes is largely irrelevant within the context of the GPLv3 process. The main point there is that people expect him to listen and in the end produce a license that is pallatable to a large variety of interests and still defends the four software freedoms.

Faillure to produce such a license is self-limiting. People will simply not use it.
Should he fail to defend the four freedoms, it's time to appoint another President of the FSF.

>RMS does not trust the community. So he (and some of his more vocal supporters) should really not be surprised if the community does not trust him.

Fortunately he made it so that there is no need for anyone to like him or even trust him. Or to put it another way; Larry McVoy seemed like a nice fellow. Actually, I still think he is rather charming. But I wouldn't want to rely on his software.