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All GPLed Code Removed From MonoDevelop

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the those-who-write-the-code-make-the-rules dept.

rysiek writes "A few days ago, Miguel de Icaza wrote on his blog that the whole of MonoDevelop is now 'free' of GPL-licensed code. 'MonoDevelop code is now LGPLv2 and MIT X11 licensed. We have removed all of the GPL code, allowing addins to use Apache, MS-PL code as well as allowing proprietary add-ins to be used with MonoDevelop (like RemObject's Oxygene).'"

3 of 443 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I think it's funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are up to 3, and have a lot of 3.5 finished, but why let facts get in the way

  2. Removing the GPL code. by miguel · · Score: 5, Informative

    We removed the GPL code in MonoDevelop for a couple of reasons:

    (a) to allow it to become a platform that third-party plugin and add-in developers can target.
    (b) to allow us to consume open source code that would otherwise conflict with the GPL (MS-PL licensed code, Apache licensed code, and original BSD licensed code).

    Notice that (a) is the norm for Eclipse and Visual Studio, and that the ecosystem of third party plugins relies on this, both Eclipse and Visual Studio would be severely limited if they limited the plugins to be all GPL licensed. As I explained on the blog post, there are current users that need to run their non-GPL code inside the IDE.

    We want more third party developers to target MonoDevelop, and we want these third parties to consider MonoDevelop a platform that they can target without forcing a license on them. Similar to how the Linux operating system can run code licensed under any license.

    The second reason is just a practical one. In the .NET open source ecosystem there are plenty of libraries and tools available under the MS-PL, Old and New BSD and Apache 2 licenses and we want to be in a position to use those libraries without rewriting it. We already do, and it has saved us a lot of time.

  3. Re:Whining little babies. by dghcasp · · Score: 5, Informative

    The internet was basically built on the GPL, and most of the code that makes it go was built using the GPL

    You mean built on things like TCP/IP (BSD 4-clause) and Unix (ATT License) that enabled communication between networks?

    Or like sendmail (BSD Licensed) that facilitated adoption of user@example.com email addresses, instead of the dominant mixed!bang!and!right%associative!email addresses and the X.400 C=US;A=IBMX400;P=EMAIL;G=firstname;S=lastname;O=engineering;OU=email;OU=internet-connectivity style of addresses?

    Or like Usenet (various parts under various BSD licenses) that facilitated the exchange of information, software, and porn before the web even existed? The one that Linus posted his early Linux sources to?

    Or like FTP (BSD license, and/or ATT License) that allowed archiving and known-distribution-points of software way before google made it easy to find things?

    Or like web browsers (all derived, more or less from NCSA Mosaic) which was never open-source, but required paying license fees?

    Or like web servers, like Apache, which had (has) a license that isn't GPL compatable?

    Can you even name any important GPL software (other than emacs) that is in wide use, is important, and is non-derivitive of something already existing under a BSD or proprietatry license?

    gcc: derivitive. Every company around provided c compilers.

    linux: derivitive. Ever hear of Unix?