Perens Rains on Novell's Parade

unum15 writes "This week is Novell's Brainshare conference. They are touting the Microsoft covenant not to sue as 'good for consumers'. However, Bruce Perens decided to take this opportunity to 'rain on Novell's parade'. Perens read a statement from RMS affirming the GPLv3 would not allow companies to enter deals like this and continue to offer GPLv3 software. Perens even goes as far as to suggest this move is an exit strategy by Novell. There are also audio and pictures of the event available."

Comments

GPL3 won't fly in the real world

[swordgeek]

For some years now, a fair number of companies have been trying to figure out a way of using GPLed programs legitimately in their profit-making operations. Some have been successful, some not so much. (And of course, some companies try to get away with using the software withouth regard for the terms of the GPL, but that's another matter.)

It's not easy--the nature of the GPL runs pretty much counter to how businesses generally work. Still, there's a developing history of success with it.

If widely used, the GPL3 will change that. It is explicitly and methodically being written to be as anti-business as possible. Software released under the GPL3 will be avoided by all companies for any purpose. FOSS will become a hobbiest ghetto, with no commercial potential even for commercially useful software.

Of course, this isn't likely to happen. Realistically, MS will continue to fan the flames of confusion over the legal fuzziness of FOSS, slowing down the spread of good software. Rational developers will ignore the GPL3 and continue to write under more reasonable licenses, either GPL2 or CDDL or the like. ESR, RMS, and (strangely enough) Bruce Perens will end up carrying on a verbal pissing match against a vast throng of nobody at all.

The GPL3 is nothing more than the expression of an anti-business diatribe by a handful of increasingly irrelevant nutters. Nobody cares.