Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Jeremy Allison Talks Samba and GPLv3

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the early-adopters dept.

dmarti writes "The software that enables Linux to act as a Windows file and print server is adopting the Free Software Foundation's new license. What will be the impact on users, distributors, and appliance vendors? Samba maintainer Jeremy Allison answers, in a podcast interview."

2 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Transcript? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anybody have a transcript? I can't be the only one who hates having to listen to something for ten minutes instead of reading it in one or two minutes. Is there anything that actually makes audio necessary? No? Then have it as an optional extra for the people on the go, don't have it as your default format when you know it's going to be decidedly suboptimal for the majority of your visitors!

  2. Re:Linus is right by wrook · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linus should have stuck to his non-commercial-use-only license. He only adopted the GPL because of pressure from others and has never believed in it. I don't advocate people doing things they don't believe in.


    From an interview with Linus Torvalds himself - http://www.tlug.jp/docs/linus.html :

    I'm generally a very pragmatic person: that which works, works. When it comes to software, I _much_ prefer free software, because I have very seldom seen a program that has worked well enough for my needs, and having sources available can be a life-saver.

    So in that sense I am an avid promoter of free software, and GPL'd stuff in particular (because once it's GPL'd I _know_ it's going to stay free, so I don't have to worry about future releases).


    Further more:

    I changed the copyright to the GPL within roughly half a year: it quickly became evident that my original copyright was so restrictive that it prohibited some entirely valid uses (disk copying services etc - this was before CD-ROM's became really popular). And while I was nervous about the GPL at first, I also wanted to show my appreciation to the gcc C compiler that Linux depended on, which was obviously GPL'd.

    Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.


    So... I'd say you are completely and utterly wrong.