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Is Apache Or GPL Better For Open-Source Business?
mjasay writes "While the GPL powers as much as 77% of all SourceForge projects, Eric Raymond argues that the GPL is 'a confession of fear and weakness' that 'slows down open-source adoption' because of the fear and uncertainty the GPL provokes. Raymond's argument seems to be that if openness is the winning strategy, an argument Michael Tiemann advocates, wouldn't it make sense to use the most open license? Geir Magnusson of the Apache Software Foundation suggests that there are few 'pure' GPL-only open-source projects, as GPL-prone developers have to 'modify it in some way to get around the enforcement of Freedom(SM) in GPL so people can use the project.' But the real benefit of Apache-style licensing may not be for developers at all, and rather accrue to businesses hoping to drive adoption of their products: Apache licensing may encourage broader, deeper adoption than the GPL. The old GPL vs. BSD/Apache debate may not be about developer preferences so much as new business realities."
A musty atmosphere of neglect pervaded the subbasement of University Library and the books on the shelves were covered in a fine layering of dust. There were dim lights over the small study cubicles at the end of each aisle between the towering shelves which produced only enough illumination for the top of the desks, leaving the surrounding stacks and central walkway shrouded in a perpetual twilight.
I had finally found the copy of the heavy API guide I needed for my work connecting my SQL database to the graphical front end I had been slaving over all weekend. However, the intricacy of the cover of the neighboring book drew my attention and I brought it along to the desk for better inspection under the light. The cover looked a lot newer than the heavily thumbed volumes beside it. Emblazoned across the front was the title "Linux - Unleash the Power of your PC" together with a picture of a fat cartoonish looking penguin. As I opened the book I felt a strange buzzing in my head that quickly passed. I shrugged it off as my attention was drawn to a CD which dropped out and landed on the desk in front of me. It bore the same title as the book, together with something about 'Ubuntu' which was a word I did not recognise.
I had heard of Linux though. The University ran Unix on some of their servers, although I rarely chose to interact with those systems. Perhaps I should broaden my horizons though. I liked to think I knew just about everything there was to know about using Windows, but you could never have too many strings to your bow. Almost without thinking I slipped the CD into my pocket and returned my attention to my work.
A date with my girlfriend Paige followed the work in the library. I was one of the few students on my CS course to actually have a partner since, although computers interested me and would one day be my means of making a living, I was careful not to get drawn into the weird geek subculture that seemed to pervade the department. Some of the guys with their nerdish glasses and unwashed t-shirts grunted at me strangely when I declined to join in their games of Counterstrike or attend Dungeons & Dragons sessions, but I reminded myself that while they were shut up in a grimy lab scoffing Cheetos I was getting laid on a regular basis.
That night in my dorm room while I was getting ready for bed, I remembered the CD in my pocket and fired up my laptop to take a look However I couldn't make out what the strange messages flowing across the screen meant. Perhaps if I sounded them out their meaning would become clear. I tried to phonetically pronounce the words but they disappeared too quickly to be replaced with a blank screen. I gave up, turned off the light and climbed into bed.
The erotic dream started with Paige slowly caressing my back and buttocks. The caressing transitioned into an incredibly gentle massage starting at my neck and shoulders and running down my back. My butt cheeks were being massaged apart and I spread my legs and raised my rear as her hand reached underneath me from behind to stroke my erection. Her hand was very warm and felt wonderful as I started to slowly thrust into her hand as she started jerking me off. A huge long warm and moist tongue started playing over my testicles and anus. It felt fantastic. No one had ever licked me there before. I never knew how sensual it felt.
As her hot hand was expertly running up and down my rigid penis something started probing my anus. It snaked its way into my anal opening and it started slowly expanding. Suddenly I had the urge to move my bowels, but I didn't care, as my attention was totally focused on my imminent orgasm. My penis was released as Paige suddenly grabbed my sides and jammed her hips against my butt.
I woke up to find myself with my rear in the air. Someone was grabbing my sides and hitting my butt. I jolted fully awake as I felt something expanding in my rectum and realized I was being fucked. The cock in my butt was still expanding and was becoming painfully large. I thought I could
If this isn't proof that welfare is a bad idea, then I don't know what is. Filthy negro beasts are too stupid to feed their kids when Popeye's is closed.
And now let me rant about how Slashdot gets worse by the day. Not only do I have to log back in to Slashdot repeatedly when browsing (because I'm "behind a corporate firewall")(imagine!!) but now I find myself browsing this particular topic as user "1779"! Sorry, 1779, I'll try not to muck up your view settings.
It will be interesting to see what Slashdot user posts this, now won't it? Will it be me? 1779? SomeOtherRandomUserAccount? How F&CKING hard is it to keep track of my log in name between subjects? Rtards.
Thank you. I feel better. Go on about your business.
First, as *BSDs show, the GPL is not a sine-qua-non for having a pretty good open source operating system. This piece of evidence is frequently neglected by the wishful thinking/fallacious thought process of GPL fanboys or members of the Cult of Stallman. Going further, the adoption of FreeBSD userland code in Mac OS X has allowed for a truly great thing, a Unix for the masses (and, BTW, Apple has contributed code back as well as hired FreeBSD developers).
Second, most big open source projects are business-friendly through their licenses (look in there for the LGPL or exceptions or other licenses): KDE, Google software, Firefox, Perl, GNOME, etc.
Third, to stay away from the obvious, I'd like to consider the fact that there would be other, better, languages to program software in Linux, with faster and safer development cycles. Specifically, I'm talking about Eiffel and Ada that had powerful IDEs and compiler released under dual-licenses (GPL is your project if your project is GPL) but that didn't result in even a bleep on the radar screen of developers. Now, I know there's a cultural barrier (overindulgence in C/C++) but the fact is that releasing dual-licensed IDEs and compilers didn't help.
Third, the Church of FSF gets it all wrong by focusing on "freedom for code." Code is an abstract, inanimate thing. "Freedom" as a category applies to humans. Humans should be free to choose what to do with code. Open-source code can't be "stolen" because the fountain of resource keeps on giving. The Church of the FSF is a moralist cult.
Fourth, there is no way small software houses can compete with huge firms if they release GPL code. Everybody knows this. They'll take your code and give it to their staff. Greenspun wrote about this eons ago.
Finally, fifth, quit with the non-proprietary code hating. Currently, what's needed for the widepsread adoption for, e.g., Linux, is the hability to use a machine as a normal machine. Therefore, we need proprietary codecs, unless all the free software signal processing freaks (you there?) get together on a project like the BBC dirac, which is not happening for whatever reason... Otherwise, e.g., Linux will not be usable. So, the community's got to stop hating on distros that mingle Linux with those codecs, and stop hyping distros that require too much tweaking. Right now, throw some RAM and something like Matisse and Linux can impress people as much as, say, Vista.
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
Yes, the GPL can be said to be a hippie type ideal "commune" or communistic SINCE it forms a community that REQUIRES that members FOLLOW RULES that they PROVIDE their WORK for FREE if they want to join.
Most users never care about code. They simply want their system to work. It's programmers who care about code.
If I want something you GPLers created I simply use it without paying you anything. There are ways around the GPL rules. Simply stick the darn program into it's own space and only make essential minimal if any changes to it. Keep it a separate program wrapped in a protective condom to keep the GPL virus from infecting my code with it's silly and stupid license terms that would convert my code into the GPL commune. No thanks, my code stays mine.
I have contributed some of my code to the GPL but always I have a dual license with the BSD license providing the true freedom for other coders (the only ones who matter are coders not end users) and even users.
Many projects are BSD-style licensed without the need to enforce sharing. That's what the GPL does, it enforces sharing but it creates a nasty pernicious situation where if it's included into your program ALL your code in that program becomes infected with the GPL virus license. Why? That's totally insane terms. Just because I compile a source file into my program space ALL my other code in that space MUST become GPLed. Insanity.
So as a result wrap GPL code in separate program spaces to keep it from infecting other code.
Now, let's compare that with BSD, Apache, MIT, the truly free license styles. They are truly free since I, a programmer, can include as much or as little of their source code in any program space I choose without their license infecting the rest of the code in that space. So they are non-infective and since they don't require me to contribute my changes back to their projects I am free do so as I please: share or not.
I as a programmer dedicated to excellence in software for my clients do care about my end users, they after all provide my income. Producing the best software for them is paramount. However, giving them the source code won't make the software any better for they are not programmers!!! So they really don't care about the code. You just have to get that. The vast majority of end users are not programmers and never will be and really don't care about the source code - it's just gobbly gook to them. It's geek without a translation matrix. What end users care about is great software.
Furthermore, more often than not the quality of open source software is, well, to be polite, a bit clunky and full of errors. That's fine, you get what you pay for and since it's free one must accept it as it is and if one chooses one can fix it as needed or even improve upon it as one is inspired.
The GPL is mainly aimed at people like Richard Stallman: PROGRAMMERS!!! Well, the vast majority of human beings will never program a computer. Certainly they'll never want to go through the horrors of getting make files to actually work. It's too geek for them. They are actually humans not geeks.
The GPL may actually make a lot of sense to people who are like Richard Stallman: programmers who want a cause. You do know of course that Stallman is a hippie. Have you ever met him? I've meet him a number of times and he's basically a geekie hippie with a cause. Great for him and his commune cult followers. Join his cult if you want, release your code as GPL if you want. Just don't expect me to do the same. Just don't expect me to be happy that you put so many restrictions on it that I have to alter my build process so as to not include your source in the same program as my code. Eesh. Annoying.
Anyway the work around the GPL is to simply keep GPLed programs within the condom protection of their own program space and to enhance them as needed to provide access to the real programs that are doing the primary work load: my code. That interface might be CLI in which case missing CLI options are added.