Yes, I read that bit. Your objection seemed to be about the comparison with an older version of gcc, and I was noting why that comparison was legitimate, for t

Yes, I read that bit. Your objection seemed to be about the comparison with an older version of gcc, and I was noting why that comparison was legitimate, for them. EDIT Ah, I see how: you're talking about clang's website, whereas I'm talking about the submitted link, which is about FreeBSD. Note: the same argument also applies to other companies avoiding the GPLv3, which would explain why clang's website uses gcc 4.2 in its comparison. Though people here mentioned the GPLv3, no one noted that 4.2 was when the gcc license switched to it (I checked the HN comments). FWIW I've seen a GPL project eventually lose out to a BSD-style competitor, and the latter were surprisingly nasty about it, similar to what you're saying. This might be due to commercial interests vigorously supporting the BSD-style version for reasons of MONEY. But apart from nastiness, it makes sense that a more permissive license, being free to a wider audience, will be more popular. OTOH perhaps here, for a compiler, requiring people to give back (GPL) will work better? OTOH2, promising new tech always gets a certain ersatz caché - whether that promise is fulfilled or not.