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XFree86 4.4 Released
puriots0 writes "XFree86 version 4.4 is finally out! Grab it while it's still hot, if you don't mind the recent licensing changes... And if you don't care about the license, but the maintainers of your distribution do, this might be the only way to get it for the moment." The XFree86 people seem very eager to claim that the new license is nothing bad; see their FAQ. However, people who have reviewed it, such as RMS and Branden Robinson, think differently. It looks as if the XFree86 people have a short timespan to either rethink their license changes or be dropped from every/almost every Linux distribution in favor of a forked codebase.
Have you ever tried urpmi? Its like emerge but without the compiling, I don't find that Mandrakes pakage system "kinda sucks" after discovering this tool!
found here
Wrong. You don't have to GPL your code if your licence is GPL compatible. Thats Why LGPL and other licences can co-exist with the gpl.
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Um. Smoke much crack?
Unless you know of any major distros that have been released in the last week without freezing their packages, I'd imagine the answer to your question would be NONE.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Nice troll congratulations. You got modded up too, nice job.
"The FSF doesn't like the new license and begins telling people that it is incompatible with the GPL. Does that mean they are right? "
Yes. Even the X people agree, so the the openbsd people.
"Does the GPL mean whatever the FSF decides it means that week? "
Nice troll, I'll give you a 9 for this. You will actually fool people for thinking that this has something to do with changes to the GPL. Of course you knwo that's not the case but a briliant use of misdirection.
"Or, in a country governed by the rule of law, does it mean no more and no less that what it be proven to mean in court? I don't know about you, but I tend to believe the latter"
Another brilliant misdirection. You know full well this nothing to do with the law. Another 9.
"More importantly, what exactly is the FSF supThe law which so venerate so much gives the FSF the right to sue people who violate their license. I doubt it will come to that but the FSF has the right to sue and they have shown willingness in the past to sue.
"Do they have the money"
Yes they do. They also have the ability to raise funds if they need it.
"let alone the ability convince a court that the suit isn't frivilous?"
Easy. Show the license, show where the license has been breached, collect damages. If the license is deemed void amend the suit to one of copyright violations and collect even more money.
"More importantly, can they afford the ill will that would result?"
The people who already hate them (you, MS, SCO etc) will continue to hate them no matter what. The OSS community will hail as heroes for enforcing the GPL.
"I personally don't understand why XFree considers this change so important, but neither do I see it as a harmful one"
They can do whatever they want. If the FSF says it's incompatible with the GPL then the distros won't include it. Every action has consequences.
"Isn't that something that RMS has been whining about for years with his GNU/Linux nonsense? He "corrects" people for calling Linux Linux every chance he gets. In fact I read an article where the author claimed that RMS refused to give an interview unless the article used his preferred terminology."
Great touch. End your post with a personal attack on RMS. I think that got you the +5 more then anything else.
People should bookmark your post. One of the all time great trolls.
The best way to support the US war effort is to continue buying American products.
I saw this in the release notes.
Pseudo-intelligent comment:
Interesting. My impression of the GNU/*BSDs were that they were an exercise to prove GNU software was more important than Linux. As such GPL licensing issues are critical. I'm surprised they'll accept 4.4 because of licensing issues.
Flammable comment:
I'm sure all 6 of the general users that run KFreeBSD will be very happy.