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Ah, but that's the thing - it is a trade-off. While both the GPL and BSD (and other Free Software licenses) are certainly better than closed-source, the GPL is
by koko775 16y ago
Ah, but that's the thing - it is a trade-off. While both the GPL and BSD (and other Free Software licenses) are certainly better than closed-source, the GPL is a promise to the user at the expense of the developer (a reasonable expense, to be sure), whereas the BSD and BSD-like licenses are promises to the developer, perhaps at some expense to the user (i.e. if something uses it it's not guaranteed to be Free Software).
Given that most people are developers, not users, I myself prefer BSD-style licenses. That said, I also think the GPL keeps developers honest and is healthy for the FOSS ecosystem as well.
- rbanffy 16y ago> Given that most people are developers, not users In what universe?
- koko775 16y agoIn the universe where I accidentally transpose words. I meant that using BSD is better for developers than for users, I prefer to release code under licenses more permissive than the GPL.
- rbanffy 16y agoBut, if your universe is like mine and there are many more users than developers (who also happen to be users), it makes more sense to use *GPL-like licenses because they protect the rights of a majority.