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Survey Says GPLv3 Is Shunned
willdavid writes in to note a survey of open source developers conducted by Evans Data that indicates a real rift in the community over GPLv3. The survey was based on in-depth interviews with 380 open source developers and no estimated margin of error was given. "Just 6 percent of developers working with open-source software have adopted the new GNU General Public License version 3... Also, two-thirds say they will not adopt GPLv3 anytime in the next year, and 43 percent say they will never implement the new license. Almost twice as many would be less likely to join a project that uses GPLv3 than would be likely to join... [Evans Data's CEO said] 'Developers are confused and divided about [the restrictions GPLv3 imposes], with fairly equal numbers agreeing with the restrictions, disagreeing with them, or thinking they will be unenforceable.'"
The GPLv3 is full of FUD, a lot of it well founded. There is a reason I won't use it, but then even GPLv2 isn't as free as I like (BSD forever, yada yada yada)
This article is also FUD, and unlike other GPLv3 fun, it is NOT well founded.
That 6% are actually using GPLv3 already is not an indication of failure, but a pretty big success, and suprisingly high. That 40% will never touch GPLv3 is not suprising, because how many of them are BSD zealots rather than GPL zealots anyway.
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A very good reason not to put this kind of "optional" in your license again (whatever you think of v3).
This isn't a problem, just a different choice of license. I personally do some LGPL v2 stuff, and won't use v3 since it's revision of LGPL is too restrictive for my tastes, while BSD is too free.
I can't say I'll never use or join a v3 project. It's all a matter of what goals the project has.
Not everyone wants to follow the full-blown Stallman ideas of socialist software but still wants to publicly collaborate and protect copyright. Others want to follow the BSD model, and some are into the full-blown over-the-top protectionist idea of proprietary code.
You aren't free to hit me because you've had that freedom taken away from you.
Your (My) freedom to hit someone (you) ends where their (your) nose begins.
FalconShould there be a Law?