Andy Green wrote:
[snip]
That's why these complaints seem really churlish to me, ignoring the
boon to you and only complaining about your contribution back.
One issue with this is in deployment in concert with development.
Let's say that a company is going to build a new device, and wants
to put an OS on an embedded computer, and develop some applications
to run on it. This company does not want to divulge its trade
secrets to the whole world for copying. Special techniques which
may, for example, allow a cell phone to use lower power and still
achieve good range, hence not cooking your brain.
Do they chose to deploy Linux+GNU? They do not. Because if they
do, then the LGPL will cause them to have to supply, along with
the telephone, the source to their product, and give away their
trade secrets, and let other people modify and distribute their
source. And even if they were willing to do that, they may
want to purchase a license for the OMAP (a part of the mobile
phone protocol stack) library, rather than redevelop the wheel,
thus saving money for themselves, saving money for the customer,
saving time to market, and perhaps even making the product possible,
given the manpower available.
Oh, but the third party library developer for the OMAP doesn't
want his library given away. The good ol' LGPL steps right in
and says "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
So, instead, they choose to use Solaris, making the new lower-
power cellphone possible, and cheaper, and everybody wins.
Er, except Linux deployment. Which suffers.
This example is not as contrived as it sounds. The names have
been changed to protect the innocent, but the story is essentially
what happened in 2000 or so when I recommended not to use Linux,
but to use Solaris in a new VOIP project at Alcatel, which now
as a consequence uses Solaris and not Linux.
Mike
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I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
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