>Windows is tragic in many respects, but proprietary incentives did speed up computer development early on whereas GPL has slowed things down, and been sideline

>Windows is tragic in many respects, but proprietary incentives did speed up computer development early on whereas GPL has slowed things down, and been sidelined, again and again. The GPL is commonly cited as the reason why Linux is where it is today. It's a different incentive model to be sure, but one that undeniably works. It's why many prominent projects continue to use it, and it's why new projects use it as well. The only thing the GPL slowed down is people who aren't willing to accept how the GPL was designed to work. Sure, I'd love a world where copyright was laughed off and where DMCA and anti-circumvention laws were annulled (i.e code is treated like the math that it is), but that's not the world we live in. In this reality, I and many others believe that the GPL provides the best trade-offs in terms freedom to users (and thus developers).