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At this point, if they go the trouble to relicense Linux, it might be better to go with BSD or Apache over GPL. Linux already supports closed source drivers (se

At this point, if they go the trouble to relicense Linux, it might be better to go with BSD or Apache over GPL. Linux already supports closed source drivers (see NVidia). In addition, most of the companies that contribute to Linux, do it because they see the benefits of features being upstream, not because they are forced to.

favorited 7y ago
Linus has said he still prefers GPLv2 for his software over the BSDs, etc (at least as of a few years ago). He doesn't care about Tivoization, because he's not concerned about hardware. But he said if you use Linux and enhance it for your product, he wants the opportunity to upstream your enhancements.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
  > But he said if you use Linux and enhance it for your product, he wants the opportunity to upstream your enhancements The major enhancements I see are hardware vendors optimizing Linux for their hardware, or cloud vendors optimizing to make it run better on their cloud. In both of these situations, Linux is the complement to their product (either hardware or cloud hosting), and thus it is in their best interest to upstream their enhancements, regardless of the license. See Joel Spolsky's classic column: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/
  - singron 7y ago
    > hardware vendors optimizing Linux for their hardware This makes sense for component vendors that want their customers to use the hardware with their customer's existing OS (Linux). If it's a hardware vendor that also controls the software (e.g. mobile phones, appliances), then this doesn't apply. Keeping modifications to themselves can serve maintaining competitive advantage, reducing liability, or simply reducing costs of publishing code (either getting it merged upstream or mirroring a fork).

favorited 7y ago

Linus has said he still prefers GPLv2 for his software over the BSDs, etc (at least as of a few years ago). He doesn't care about Tivoization, because he's not concerned about hardware. But he said if you use Linux and enhance it for your product, he wants the opportunity to upstream your enhancements.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
> But he said if you use Linux and enhance it for your product, he wants the opportunity to upstream your enhancements The major enhancements I see are hardware vendors optimizing Linux for their hardware, or cloud vendors optimizing to make it run better on their cloud. In both of these situations, Linux is the complement to their product (either hardware or cloud hosting), and thus it is in their best interest to upstream their enhancements, regardless of the license. See Joel Spolsky's classic column: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/
- singron 7y ago
  > hardware vendors optimizing Linux for their hardware This makes sense for component vendors that want their customers to use the hardware with their customer's existing OS (Linux). If it's a hardware vendor that also controls the software (e.g. mobile phones, appliances), then this doesn't apply. Keeping modifications to themselves can serve maintaining competitive advantage, reducing liability, or simply reducing costs of publishing code (either getting it merged upstream or mirroring a fork).