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Re: Significance of the GP licence.
From: |
David Kastrup |
Subject: |
Re: Significance of the GP licence. |
Date: |
Tue, 04 May 2010 16:07:45 -0000 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1.92 (gnu/linux) |
Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:
> In gnu.misc.discuss RJack <user@example.net> wrote:
>
>> Reason? So do birds. flowers and trees. So what is your point? You
>> are correct (for once). I don't get it. Statements usually have to
>> make sense. What's your rhetorical focus?
>
> Quite simply, that it is the GPL itself which is the main reason for
> the popularity of Linux amongst the people who write it.
Well, that's half of the story. Linux has been written to support a
preexisting GNU userland. And that userland has a tradition of being
popular and freely available quite before Linux.
And BSD became freely available only some time after GNU/Linux. The GNU
userland is unpopular among BSD developers because, well, they are BSD
developers. And because their kernel of choice already comes in one
package with a userland.
So quite a lot of popularity of GNU/Linux comes from GNU, and not
necessarily just because GNU is GPLed.
> If, for some currently inconceivable reason, Linux was relicenced
> under what you call a "free as in freedom" licence, many developers
> would cease development.
The Linux kernel developers tend not to be all too religious about
licensing. Well, they do, but they call their religion pragmatism.
> This might leave a mere rump, scarcely larger than the groups which
> maintain the BSD kernels.
I doubt it.
--
David Kastrup
- Re: Versa trashes the GPL as well, (continued)
- Re: Versa trashes the GPL as well, RJack, 2010/05/04
- Re: Versa trashes the GPL as well, David Kastrup, 2010/05/04
- Re: Versa trashes the GPL as well, RJack, 2010/05/04
- Significance of the GP licence., Alan Mackenzie, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., RJack, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., Alan Mackenzie, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., RJack, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence.,
David Kastrup <=
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., RJack, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., David Kastrup, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., Alexander Terekhov, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., Alan Mackenzie, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., David Kastrup, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., RJack, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., David Kastrup, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., Hyman Rosen, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., RJack, 2010/05/04
- Re: Significance of the GP licence., Hyman Rosen, 2010/05/04