3 ms·

This is exactly my feeling! A lot of my "playground stuff" is in the Public Domain for this very reason; I hate giving underpants as gifts cause that is such a

by eksith 13y ago

This is exactly my feeling! A lot of my "playground stuff" is in the Public Domain for this very reason; I hate giving underpants as gifts cause that is such a bummer (and you don't even find out a lot of times until you download the bloody thing), I can't even explain just how bad it feels without coffee first. The non-playground stuff is MIT (something I did for work) or ISC, which is mostly harmless to anyone who wants to actually use it. People who use GPL are too hung up on controlling the distribution mode of derivatives; I understand the reason GPL exists, but I think it's a faulty premise to begin with. Kinda like Peace Through Superior Fire Power. Also, the preamble to the GPL reads a lot like religious/political rhetoric.

stelonix 13y ago
Would you care to elaborate why you think GPL's premise is false? And I believe you're right, the GPL is (and was designed to be) a political statement.
- eksith 13y ago
  I started writing a reply and then I just remembered I wrote about how I felt about it a little while back. http://eksith.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/gpl-vs-bsd/ http://eksith.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/gpl-vs-bsd/ On three separate occasions so far, I've come across a situation where someone has rejected a GPL piece (with basically nothing wrong technically; which is a damn shame) only to go with BSD the first time, ISC the second and, to my surprise, a closed source solution the third. Now 3 may not seem like a statistically significant number, but from the type of projects these were, my feeling is that the GPL seems to actively repel adoption to the point where even a closed source binary is more preferable. The premise is to ensure quality code gets returned to the community, and I understand that, but quality code isn't what we usually get back. When the issue is forced, by and large, I feel people reject participation entirely, return the bare minimum necessary to comply (let's say an API which is GPL licensed while the rest of the library/application is under a different one) or, of course, non-compliance. It's hard not to be a cynic these days, but I do think most people are basically good. And if you give good people the choice of doing good, they will not only do it, but also do it more earnestly. This earnestness in turn will produce, I believe, code of the best quality.

by eksith 13y ago

stelonix 13y ago

Would you care to elaborate why you think GPL's premise is false? And I believe you're right, the GPL is (and was designed to be) a political statement.

eksith 13y ago
I started writing a reply and then I just remembered I wrote about how I felt about it a little while back. http://eksith.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/gpl-vs-bsd/ http://eksith.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/gpl-vs-bsd/ On three separate occasions so far, I've come across a situation where someone has rejected a GPL piece (with basically nothing wrong technically; which is a damn shame) only to go with BSD the first time, ISC the second and, to my surprise, a closed source solution the third. Now 3 may not seem like a statistically significant number, but from the type of projects these were, my feeling is that the GPL seems to actively repel adoption to the point where even a closed source binary is more preferable. The premise is to ensure quality code gets returned to the community, and I understand that, but quality code isn't what we usually get back. When the issue is forced, by and large, I feel people reject participation entirely, return the bare minimum necessary to comply (let's say an API which is GPL licensed while the rest of the library/application is under a different one) or, of course, non-compliance. It's hard not to be a cynic these days, but I do think most people are basically good. And if you give good people the choice of doing good, they will not only do it, but also do it more earnestly. This earnestness in turn will produce, I believe, code of the best quality.