Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 15:00:56 +0000 From: Paul Robinson <paul@iconoplex.co.uk> To: Josh ??ckert <torstenvl@gmail.com> Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Subject: Re: GPL vs BSD Licence Message-ID: <20041101150056.GD95472@iconoplex.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <126eac4804110106127610fe07@mail.gmail.com> References: <20041031105926.4f06b06f.flynn@energyhq.es.eu.org> <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNCEJGEPAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> <126eac4804110106127610fe07@mail.gmail.com>
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On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 09:12:25AM -0500, Josh ??ckert wrote: > Actually, Ted, to us newbies, it is uninteresting. Most of us come > from Linux and know the GPL fairly well by now. Since YANAL (You Are > Not All Lawyers), I think these discussions are kind of a waste of > time Speak for yourself. The vast majority of people out there think Open Source == GPL. The vast majority of people coming to open source are not aware of what the differences between GPL and BSD are. I know, because I speak to a lot of people who are new to Open Source as part of my job. The first question is whether the difference matters. If you're a user, then no, it doesn't. If you're a developer, yes, it quite obviously does. The second question is normally which one is "better". It depends on whether you like your politics to take place in the context of an electoral democracy, or a software license. Those of us over here on the BSD side of the camp *may* think Socialism is a wonderful concept but don't think the best place to enforce it is in the licenses we attatch to the code we ship. GPL bunnies will not be happy until there is an all-out revolution of the software industry and all software becomes "free" in all senses of the word. Except of course, GPL enforcing freedom is about as dumb an idea as enforcing democracy and actually, in the process, obviously encumbers people with a process that serves political ends rather than the fostering of a community that shares. If you don't like the conversations that occur on these matters, may I direct you to your e-mail clients ability to filter e-mail based on subject line, or even the ability to delete e-mail? P.S. - I apologise if none of the above makes sense. Pub lunch and all that. It *is* Monday after all. -- Paul Robinson http://www.iconoplex.co.uk/ "All I know is I'm not a Marxist" - Karl Marx
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