3 ms·

I have yet to see BSD / MIT meaningfully improving my personal life, quite unlike the GPL which pretty much made my career possible thanks to the wealth of GPL

I have yet to see BSD / MIT meaningfully improving my personal life, quite unlike the GPL which pretty much made my career possible thanks to the wealth of GPL software under Linux

Xylakant 5y ago
Have you ever used software linked against OpenSSL? It’s licensed under APL, which is very similar to the BSD family of license - it allows use in closed source projects. Or OpenSSH - it’s developed by the OpenBSD folks and licensed under a BSD style license. Or Firefox - licensed under MPL, very similar to APL. The rust compiler is dual-licensed under MIT/APL. Both ruby and python are dual-licensed with at least one license from the BSD/MIT group, the python license itself is similar to BSD as well. The Linux kernel allows incorporating BSD/MIT licensed code in the kernel itself and though I didn’t check, I’m certain there are examples.
- my123 5y ago
  > and though I didn’t check, I’m certain there are examples. The whole GPU driver subsystem for example.
- jcelerier 5y ago
  > Have you ever used software linked against OpenSSL? It’s licensed under APL, which is very similar to the BSD family of license - it allows use in closed source projects. well, if I could I'd definitely choose gnutls over it even before getting to licensing issues tbh. Also how much better did it being useable in closed-source projects (those I don't use unless there's really no other viable choice and doing it myself is not an option) make it ? > Or OpenSSH - it’s developed by the OpenBSD folks and licensed under a BSD style license. yes, though I'm not sure if I'm using any openssh-specific interface, ssh -X maybe ? > Or Firefox - licensed under MPL, very similar to APL. MPL is closer to GPL in spirit than MIT/BSD, no ? AFAIK you can't make a closed-source derivative of Firefox (which is what matters). > The rust compiler is dual-licensed under MIT/APL. I don't use it. The only Rust software I'm using is ripgrep I believe ? > Both ruby and python are dual-licensed with at least one license from the BSD/MIT group, the python license itself is similar to BSD as well I don't use either neither as a developer or a user, the huge majority of my direct interaction with my computer is through C or C++ software; mainly KDE stuff. But all of this is besides my point - if there wasn't a big ecosystem of (L)GPL software existing when I was a teen (Linux, KDE, core/binutils, GCC etc) I'm not sure I could have taught myself enough computing to achieve what I seek to. If everything was BSD I doubt these software would have evolved into something good enough to make for a correct desktop experience (last time I tried a BSD it was deeefinitely not useable enough for me unless replacing most of the BSD base with the GNU one like I do on my mac machines for instance). I've also used proprietary software for instance, but I would not say they made my life "meaningfully better".
fault1 5y ago
It's debatable that most GNU stuff would be available if it were not for BSD.

I have yet to see BSD / MIT meaningfully improving my personal life, quite unlike the GPL which pretty much made my career possible thanks to the wealth of GPL software under Linux

Xylakant 5y ago

Have you ever used software linked against OpenSSL? It’s licensed under APL, which is very similar to the BSD family of license - it allows use in closed source projects. Or OpenSSH - it’s developed by the OpenBSD folks and licensed under a BSD style license. Or Firefox - licensed under MPL, very similar to APL. The rust compiler is dual-licensed under MIT/APL. Both ruby and python are dual-licensed with at least one license from the BSD/MIT group, the python license itself is similar to BSD as well. The Linux kernel allows incorporating BSD/MIT licensed code in the kernel itself and though I didn’t check, I’m certain there are examples.

my123 5y ago
> and though I didn’t check, I’m certain there are examples. The whole GPU driver subsystem for example.
jcelerier 5y ago
> Have you ever used software linked against OpenSSL? It’s licensed under APL, which is very similar to the BSD family of license - it allows use in closed source projects. well, if I could I'd definitely choose gnutls over it even before getting to licensing issues tbh. Also how much better did it being useable in closed-source projects (those I don't use unless there's really no other viable choice and doing it myself is not an option) make it ? > Or OpenSSH - it’s developed by the OpenBSD folks and licensed under a BSD style license. yes, though I'm not sure if I'm using any openssh-specific interface, ssh -X maybe ? > Or Firefox - licensed under MPL, very similar to APL. MPL is closer to GPL in spirit than MIT/BSD, no ? AFAIK you can't make a closed-source derivative of Firefox (which is what matters). > The rust compiler is dual-licensed under MIT/APL. I don't use it. The only Rust software I'm using is ripgrep I believe ? > Both ruby and python are dual-licensed with at least one license from the BSD/MIT group, the python license itself is similar to BSD as well I don't use either neither as a developer or a user, the huge majority of my direct interaction with my computer is through C or C++ software; mainly KDE stuff. But all of this is besides my point - if there wasn't a big ecosystem of (L)GPL software existing when I was a teen (Linux, KDE, core/binutils, GCC etc) I'm not sure I could have taught myself enough computing to achieve what I seek to. If everything was BSD I doubt these software would have evolved into something good enough to make for a correct desktop experience (last time I tried a BSD it was deeefinitely not useable enough for me unless replacing most of the BSD base with the GNU one like I do on my mac machines for instance). I've also used proprietary software for instance, but I would not say they made my life "meaningfully better".

fault1 5y ago

It's debatable that most GNU stuff would be available if it were not for BSD.