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Re: Nomination question: Redhat



On Tue, Dec 15, 1998 at 05:12:55PM +1100, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> > But at the same time many people are saying they're moving away from the
> > GPL for libraries as much as they can.  They like the GPL for apps, but
> > not for libs.
> 
> Is that a bad thing? GPL for libraries limits your ability to
> develop non-GPL software, which some could consider a limit on your freedom.

I wanted to be nice about how I worded this, but other people have not
been so my echo probably won't add much.  Please note this is what I've
heard others say, and I have no backing for this whatsoever and while it
concerns me, I'm not going to pass judgement without more solid info..

Redhat has supposedly been removing GPL libs from their dist the same way
we removed KDE.  They don't like the GPL for libs and instead of
supporting the authors who want their software to be kept free they would
rather essentially sell out on the whole free software idea and try to
convince proprietary software vendors to port their apps as quick as
possible to Redhat since Redhat is quickly becoming the dist that allows
the most exploit.

Essentially, the accusation is that Redhat is selling out on us by not
allowing GPL libs and replacing GPL libs where they can with Redhat
written code under the LGPL.  I see no reason why they would be doing
this, but the argument is the same we've probably all heard by now:  Sun
and Netscape don't want to take out Microsoft for being an evil monopoly,
they want to replace Microsoft as the next one.  Well, the argument is
that Redhat is trying to do this as well.


Some people possibly even reading this list right now (Kysh is almost
certainly) are probably laughing and saying "I told you so", however I
haven't seen evidence, only accusation.  I have seen Redhat employees
involved with the threads which spawn these accusations, but I haven't
yet seen one of them admit to or refute these claims that they're trying
to remove all GPL libs from their system---not that I would expect them
to address such ugly things really, true or not.

I suspect over the next few months we'll find out what they're really up
to.  I'm sure the accusations that Redhat is an evil corporation that is
ready to sell out the moment it looks like they could get away with it is
not new.  The "proof" that they're removing the only protection to
prevent exploit, if indeed what they're doing is certainly concerning and
worth consideration.


I don't suggest we lynch them or anything like that, obviously.  So don't
get any ideas.  =>

-- 
"Shall we play a game?"  -- WOPR


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