Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Government-Funded GPL Software

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the buy-a-gnu-or-two dept.

tgw writes "Tom Adelstein has an article in 'Linux Journal' on how a major milestone in US government-funded OSS recently passed - virtually unnoticed." Slashdot has mentioned this company earlier.

2 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. Not the first and by far by guerby · · Score: 5, Informative

    The first GPL required US government funded project I know of is the NYU GNAT project which is an Ada GCC front-end, see History in Wikipedia

    This was back in 1994 or some such.

    Laurent
    laurent@guerby.net

  2. Re:Software paid via public funding should not be by Xoder · · Score: 4, Informative

    Far better to use the GPL. If AOL wants to use the SW they paid for, they can do so. If they want to improve it, they can do that too, but they must distribute their source, so they can't create a huge "incompatibilty-hole" amongst the people who originally paid to produce the software.

    This is patently incorrect. If they want to use (in any way, shape or (modified) form) GPL-ed software, they can do so without restriction. However, if they distribute it to someone who is not in-house, and have made modifications, they must also make the source available to them (and for that matter, to anyone else).

    I hate it when people assist in the sullying of the GPL name when they attempt to defend it.

    --
    The previous sig has been removed due to /. protecting your best interests