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The code was always going to be possible to use under GPL2, even if it said GPL2+. It's not really placing their trust with anyone since they wouldn't lose anyt
by medstrom 5y ago
The code was always going to be possible to use under GPL2, even if it said GPL2+. It's not really placing their trust with anyone since they wouldn't lose anything. It's more of a flag waving op to keep corporate interest -- corporate are notoriously disinterested in GPL3 projects, so Linux devs basically said "ok let's not let anyone fork as GPL3 and make significant work we can't benefit from". Then Linux stays relevant to corporate, who keep on supplying developers to the project.
- joosters 5y agoThis isn't true at all - Linus made the licensing decision in version 0.12 of the kernel, back in 1992! The certainly wasn't any corporate interest in Linux that needed to be protected back then. http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0009.1/0096.html http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0009.1/0096.html