[HN Gopher] The Problems with the GPL
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       The Problems with the GPL
        
       Author : forgotpwd16
       Score  : 3 points
       Date   : 2021-02-06 21:45 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (unixsheikh.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (unixsheikh.com)
        
       | jadavies wrote:
       | > You cannot sell GPL licensed software
       | 
       | Wrong
        
         | coddle-hark wrote:
         | > If GPL licensed source code is required for a program to
         | compile, the program must also be under the GPL.
         | 
         | This is obviously wrong too, or else everything compiled by gcc
         | would need to be licensed as GPL. If you distribute a GPL
         | licensed program then the recipient must be able to build the
         | equivalent program from source (e.g. you can't rely on an
         | internal toolchain that doesn't have a publicly available
         | alternative) but that isn't what the author is saying.
        
       | jepper wrote:
       | Yet Linux is way more popular option both on the server and the
       | desktop. Way way way more people and companies contribute. And it
       | seems that BSD use is declining on servers? [1] MacOs is a unix
       | but how does that help the BSD community, as most code is build
       | upon it and the changes don't really trickle back. Companies just
       | take, if you can do whatever you want with the code. You can wish
       | that everybody shared back in a perfect world, reality proves
       | this is simply not true. At least the company trying to influence
       | development has to contribute to gain influence, and you can fork
       | it (with their changes!) if you don't like that.
       | 
       | The GNU license at least somewhat protective. To each their own,
       | but I would never release software under a permissive free
       | license.
       | 
       | [1] https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-bsd
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-06 23:02 UTC)