We Don't Need the GPL Anymore

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We Don't Need the GPL Anymore

Posted by Zonk on Friday July 1, 2005 @01:29AM from the man-with-the-plan dept.

jpkunst writes "In a lengthy interview with Eric S. Raymond by Federico Biancuzzi at O'Reilly's onlamp.com, ESR defends his position that 'Open source would be succeeding faster if the GPL didn't make lots of people nervous about adopting it.'" From the article: "I don't think the GPL is the principal reason for Linux's success. Rather, I believe it's because in 1991 Linus was the first person to find the right social architecture for distributed software development. It wasn't possible much before then because it required cheap internet; and after Linux, most people who might otherwise have founded OS projects found that the minimum-energy route to what they wanted was to improve Linux. The GPL helped, but I think mainly as a sort of social signal rather than as a legal document with teeth."

9 of 919 comments (clear)

Re:Oh for Pete's sake! by llamaluvr · 2005-07-01 01:49 · Score: 5, Funny

Your post isn't valid HTML because it did not use the SATIRE tag, or even the now-deprecated SARCASM tag.

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Re:Oh for Pete's sake! by 91degrees · 2005-07-01 01:53 · Score: 5, Funny

Can't any of you responders recognize satire when you see it?

Of course we can't.
Re:ESR on drugs by ConceptJunkie · 2005-07-01 02:08 · Score: 4, Funny

If /. stopped posting idiocies, there would be like 3 people discussing the weather.

You know they often get more mileage out of a provocative article than an informative one.

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You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Re:Weather forecast by TheRaven64 · 2005-07-01 02:22 · Score: 4, Funny

Why did you have to censor `snow'?

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I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I keep forgetting by SimianOverlord · 2005-07-01 02:45 · Score: 5, Funny

Is ESR the fat one with the beard, or the moustachied one with the flute? I wish submitters would remind us in write up - I'm thinking brackets after the name "ESR (moustache / flute)" would help remind us each time. To many TLAs in Open Sauce.

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Meine Schwester ist sehr, sehr reizvoll - Nietzsche
1. Re:I keep forgetting by -brazil- · 2005-07-01 03:15 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  ESR is the mustache guy, I think. Unfortunately your criteria aren't all that helpful either, since there is more than one very bearded poster child of the open source movement.
  
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  The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
  --Henry Kissinger
2. Re:I keep forgetting by 2names · 2005-07-01 03:52 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I'm thinking brackets after the name
  Better get everyone to agree on that standard before you publish it. Otherwise you'll have MS people putting curly braces, Linux people putting brackets, and Mac people using Floating Hearts or something...
  
  *ducks*
  
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  "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
3. Re:I keep forgetting by peterpi · 2005-07-01 04:08 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  And as such should really be referred to as GUN/ESR, not just ESR.
Re:Silly OSI vs FSF marketing fud by Usquebaugh · 2005-07-01 04:05 · Score: 3, Funny

Easier to sum up :-

OSI = West Coast
FSF = East Coast