On 02/05/11 15:34, rdbrown@pacific.net.au wrote:
Diomidis D. Spinellis's latest IEEE Software column "Choosing and Using Open Source Components" is up at his blog http://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20110501 and may interest.
Thanks for pointing this out Rodney. Hope we see you at the upcoming discussion group! It's a well written article, but does seem to be a little freedom-agnostic. I also worry about Spinellis' slightly twisted interpretation of the GPL: Others (licenses), like the GNU licenses, play well with other software licensed as open source but make life difficult for proprietary offerings. This is especially true if you want to distribute your work to others as a shrink-wrapped package, such as Microsoft Office, or as an embedded software product, like a set-top box. In such cases the only GNU-licensed components you can easily use are unmodified dynamically linked libraries licensed under the so-called GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). You get considerable more leeway with GNU-licensed software if you don’t distribute a product but instead offer a service (like Google) or simply use your system privately within your organization. The GNU GPL says that you can't incorporate GPL licensed code into proprietary programs. That's a benefit, not a problem, since the users of the program get the same freedoms that you do. Spinellis also suggests that offering a proprietary software service based on free software is a good way to work around the GPL. Encouraging software developers to forgo their ethical obligations to people who use their software isn't in the spirit of free software. Cheers, Ben