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Ghostscript Leaves GNU

Posted by timothy on from the that's-a-shame dept.

commanderfoxtrot writes "Ghostscript 7.07 has been released. However, this is the last GNU release. They will continue to make releases under the GNU GPL, but because of disagreements over censorship of the AFPL releases and the development model in the GNU release their development process has become incompatible with the goals of the GNU project as interpreted by Richard Stallman."

4 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Have to side with the GNU folks here. by raph · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mmm, nothing like being slashdotted. I'll try to comment on some factual points, though.

    There is no "Artifex Public License". There is the AFPL, or "Aladdin Free Public License," but we've never claimed this to be open-source, as it's not consistent with the Open Source Definition.

    Our decision separate from the GNU name has no effect on the freedoms guaranteed to our users. We've always done a GPL release within a year of the AFPL release, and will continue to do so.

    The text quoted above correctly describes the AFPL versions of Ghostscript - commercial distribution is not allowed. However, commercial Linux distributions do of course distribute the GPL version.

    --

    LILO boot: linux init=/usr/bin/emacs

  2. Re:Have to side with the GNU folks here. by matthewn · · Score: 4, Informative
    Whoever scored this "Informative" needs a poke from the cluestick.

    The Artifex license is not the point of contention, here. The Free version of Ghostscript is (and I believe always has been) GPLed. For more on the actual disagreement, see here (and its followups): http://www.ghostscript.com/pipermail/gs-devel/2002 -December/002261.html

  3. Re:Have to side with the GNU folks here. by Otter · · Score: 4, Informative
    Both of you guys are completely missing what the issue is -- a product offered under the GPL is not necessarily a GNU project.

    There's no problem mentioning non-free software in the README for a GPL'd project, and the Ghostscript guys will continue to do so. Stallman doesn't want official GNU projects doing that, so Ghostscript is leaving GNU.

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  4. Re:Have to side with the GNU folks here. by DustMagnet · · Score: 4, Informative
    The link you mention talks about changes to the GNU coding guidelines, I suspect this section: References to Non-Free Software and Documentation is the problem.

    It starts, "A GNU program should not recommend use of any non-free program."

    I've seen many GPL programs that don't live up to that rule.

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    'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!