On Tue, 2006-01-17 at 21:40 +0000, Andy Green wrote: > jdow wrote: > > > Andy, I am a software developer by trade. I use it to earn my daily bread > > and board. If I develop in an environment that involves GPL I cannot see a > > model that will continue to feed me and house me unless I take up a side > > job asking, "Do you want to supersize that, sir?" or sit at my own help > > desk all day instead of developing. GPL contaminates things too thoroughly. > > I am not a lawyer. I just read that document and basically stay away from > > GPL except for some recreational coding I've done. > > I also design software and hardware... but depending on the field you > work in, GPL stuff can bring an awful lot of firepower to the party very > cheaply. Again depending on the circumstance, the compataibility, > quality, time to market and royalty-free advanatages surrounding that > can overwhelm the possible competitive disadvantage of having to open > some of your stuff. > > The general deal is AIUI if you link with GPL'd stuff -- not LGPL'd, > which will not infect what it links to but only changes to itself -- you > will have to open your work. It seems that we crossed a threshold now > and the signs are that if you generate kernel modules you can expect > that sources will be demanded. > Not necessarily. Look at the nVidia and ATI video drivers. They are kernel modules and the source is not open. They use proprietary code in the drivers. > However, there's a lot of room in there for usermode apps that just link > to LGPL's libraries (like, eg, Oracle) that you for sure won't have to > open source unless you want to. > > Of course in your particular field if there is no specific benefit to be > had from using or being directly compatible with GPL'd stuff then it > makes sense to avoid it. > > But if its just that you are considering to use, say, Fedora as a > platform for scripts or usermode apps then AFAIUI there is zero leakage > of the GPL-ness of the OS apps up into your code and BSD or GPL makes no > odds there. > > -Andy > -- > fedora-list mailing list > fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx > To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
