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Date:      Fri, 17 Mar 2000 23:58:10 -0700
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>
Cc:        tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert), rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in (Rahul Siddharthan), freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: On "intelligent people" and "dangers to BSD"
Message-ID:  <4.2.2.20000317234800.03e7c380@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <200003180633.XAA05681@usr02.primenet.com>
References:  <4.2.2.20000317173928.040fec50@localhost>

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At 11:33 PM 3/17/2000 , Terry Lambert wrote:

>If all I do is utilize SAMBA, that is, I have it installed and
>running, and I don't invest any of my intellectual property in
>it, then I really don't care if it is GPL or whatever, because
>it's exempted by the "mere agregation" clause of the (L)GPL, and
>it can't "infect" my code, so why should I bother with the effort
>of replacing it with a "clean" version that does the same thing?

To avoid the collateral damage done by the GPL, and to prevent
it from eliminating all other alternatives. Also, if there is 
a non-GPLed equivalent, you are likely to contribute to it, report 
bugs so that it is made better, etc. All of this palliates the most
serious effect of the GPL: that it destroys other options and
leaves you locked in, with no choice.

>I end up spending money to no effect, just so I can be a puritan
>about license, which makes no sense.

Again, there are very practical reasons for wanting a BSD-licensed
version to exist. The BSD-licensed version will give you an
alternative, and will encourage vendors to produce commercial
products with that functionality too. This is a good business
decision.

The fact that GCC does not have BSD-licensed competition is one
of the main reasons that there are few decent alternatives left
for non-Microsoft platforms. Borland seemed like a hopeful
possibility, but now they are GIVING THEIR COMPILER AWAY under
pressure from GCC users who claim that they'll scorn it
otherwise.

I fail to see how they can make any money from it. And that
will mean insufficient money spent on development, support, and
promotion. 

In short, "Kylix" may well be stillborn -- long before it might
have gotten to the FreeBSD platform. Thanks to GCC.

--Brett



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