3 ms·
GPL or Apache license for an upcoming PySide2 project?
Afternoon Folks,
For my upcoming side project (for which `PySide` has been aptly chosen!), a desktop productivity app with features like milestone tracking, brainstorming, some motivational stuff, etc., I'm somewhat confused about the licensing part.
I was decided on Apache 2.0 license so far as I like their focus on merit based process, plus they actually seem to create a ton of software as an organization, it's not just a license. I like the GPL philosophy too but I'm more of a utilitarian than philosopher and the GPL folks seem to be ever more preachy about Stallmanian ethics than about the technicality of coding programs and developing apps (where I'm more interested as a utilitarian/engineer).
But it seems I may have to bite this thing and go with GPL here considering that though PySide2 itself is LGPL, it turns out that some underlying core Qt components[1] are indeed still GPL licensed, these are addons such as *QtCharts* which I'm definitely going to need for displaying charts in my GUI. Unless there is a way to use matplotlib effectively with PySide2 which I don't know about?
Being a utilitarian engineer, I'm a pragmatist too and in that sense, won't really mind which license is used in the end, as the end goal here is to create something useful for the human's desktop, not to get intertwined in open source licensing debates.
I have a slightly longer term vision with this project and all I want is that going forward, I shouldn't be restricted from using some useful component or tool or library just due to licensing issues. From that perspective, are permissive or copyleft licenses a better candidate to license your open source projects? And which one would you suggest?
[1]: https://opensource.stackexchange.com/a/9289/4160
- KingLancelot 3y ago[dead]
- brudgers 3y agoApache is a suitable choice when the project has a need for contributor agreements. GNU is paperwork free...as are BSD and MIT but with different ideas of what "free" means. However in practice, the license only matters to the degree you are willing to lawyer up and enforce it...and to the degree it is not a non-starter for other developers. But mostly, choosing a license is playing house. It feels like moving the project forward, but really is just a way of avoiding the hard work of building something. I am sure your philosophy is important to you, but it's not something that matters to me very much relative to whatever you build that actually works. Good luck.