Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:33:12 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@black-earth.co.uk> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD Popularity Message-ID: <4B8B89D8.3000304@black-earth.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <20100301053514.GA5440@orange.esperance-linux.co.uk> References: <4B8ABAB3.1060003@gamozo.org> <20100228201322.GA82783@rwxrwxrwx.net> <20100301053514.GA5440@orange.esperance-linux.co.uk>
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This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig9DE178590F8967F5E75269AA Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 01/03/2010 05:35:14, Frank Shute wrote: > To be honest, I think the licence puts off most of the commercial > entities. Which is a *good* thing. Which is utterly bizarre. The BSD / Apache / MIT/Xorg style license is considerably less onerous for any business to comply with than the GPL (especially the most recent versions). Part of the reason I suspect is perceptual. There's more BSD stuff around than you might think. The BSD license (at least in the 2- or 3- clause forms) perhaps makes it too easy for a company to use BSD-licensed technology in a hidden way. Sure, the copyright of the original authors will be acknowledged, but in the small print hidden at the end of the manual, not in some obvious place. The GPL does tend to cause the license terms to be displayed at the slightest opportunity. Not that I propose reintroducing the advertising clause -- getting companies to give greater prominence to their use of BSD technologies is a social and marketing problem that doesn't need to be solved by some legal blunt instrument. Then again, the fact that BSDs on the whole don't go in for aggressive evangelism appeals to me. It would be interesting to see what the breakdown of different licenses was for the open source code produced by eg. Google (which most people would automatically assume is a Linuxista company.) I've a sneaking suspicion that their default is to use the Apache license, except where the viral provisions of the GPL prevent that. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard, Flat 3 Black Earth Consulting Ramsgate Kent, CT11 9PW Free and Open Source Solutions Tel: +44 (0)1843 580647 --------------enig9DE178590F8967F5E75269AA Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkuLid0ACgkQ8Mjk52CukIwDEwCfYTGCaB7Efic+J4k1alPVOhof GAwAoICa4yQEv5niEZwJwmzBqXntd+rl =oMKl -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig9DE178590F8967F5E75269AA--
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