Stallman on GCC, LLVM, and copyleft [LWN.net]

Stallman on GCC, LLVM, and copyleft

Posted Jan 26, 2014 0:28 UTC (Sun) by silvas (guest, #87887)
In reply to: Stallman on GCC, LLVM, and copyleft by lkundrak
Parent article: Stallman on GCC, LLVM, and copyleft

> Why wouldn't you want your licensing term to reflect this practice then?

Because keeping private branches is a necessary evil. They are a pain, but the alternatives are much worse.

> What about better ObjC support?

As far as I've seen they just work on it in the public tree.

> What about iPhone platform support?

I assume you mean that the platform is locked down?

Well, that's their platform. They make the rules for who gets to compile for it. Now, you may say "well, they shouldn't restrict who gets to compile for their platform!" and that's fine, but it's a different issue, one which goes to the core of Apple's business model and the society that enables it and the individuals that make up that society. Even if LLVM/Clang were to magically become GPL'd tomorrow, the platform would still be locked down.