Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Why I Love The GPL

Posted by michael on from the when-you-care-enough-to-send-the-very-best dept.

Roblimo writes "'There are a lot of good reasons to like the GPL: the GNU Public License. For one thing, it's a David and Goliath kind of thing. It's the little guy standing up to the corporate behemoths that run rough-shod over our daily lives by virtue of their influence, legal and otherwise, on government. For another, it's virtuous.' These are the opening words to a NewsForge article praising the GPL by Joe Barr. Now and then we forget how much of the software we use and love is made possible by the General Public License. Thanks for reminding us, Joe. (NewsForge and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.)"

4 of 488 comments (clear)

  1. Here's why I love it: by Sheetrock · · Score: 5, Funny
    Literally hundreds or thousands of programmers that used to charge for their services now work for free.

    Definitely an improvement over the old days where you had to buy every little utility.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




  2. Big on you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Thanks for reminding us, Joe. (NewsForge and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.)""

    Nope. No corporate behemoths here.

  3. from the when-you-blah-blah-blah? by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    from the when-you-have-nothing-new-to-say-but-like-to-hear- yourself-talk-anyway dept.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. My passion for the GPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I like it because when Bruce Perens created the GPL back in the late 70s for Sun, he was considering the average home user who may have needed to compile his latest application.

    Back then applications were published in computer magazines such as Omni, Compute and of course Scientic American. These were usually in hundreds lines of code in length and principally written in Assembler.

    There's not a week that goes by when I think of Mr Perens and his contributions with the GPL and the neural networks which lead to the discovery of the Internet.

    Which is nice.