Re: GPL v LGPL for libraries
On Wed, Dec 16, 1998 at 06:02:44PM -0800, Chris Waters wrote:
> Hamish Moffatt wrote:
>
> > Let's say a commercial application runs on proprietary Unix platform Y,
> > and uses library Z, supplied with Y. On a system like Debian, if our
> > equivalent to Z is LGPLed, then the commercial app will be fine.
>
> If a free library is designed to be a drop-in replacement for an
> existing, proprietary library then I think a good case can be made for
> using LGPL for that library. But that is a small percentage of
> libraries. Other libraries offering new features have no reason not to
> be GPL'd. In fact, at the last SVLUG meeting, RMS argued eloquently
> that such libraries SHOULD be GPL'd rather than LGPL'd.
>
> > If Z' is GPL, then the commercial app can't be ported to Linux.
>
> Unless the commercial app is GPL'd. Are you avoiding the term
> "proprietary app" for a reason? Like, you think people won't respond as
> favorably if you admit that you're talking about proprietary apps?
It's not just proprietary apps that are disadvantaged (there you go,
I used thed the term). You can't write a BSD or Artistic license app
and link it to a GPL library either. And our DFSG says that those licenses
are just as free as GPL.
> Well, yes, that's true. OTOH, if it's a proprietary app, it's really
> not of much concern to Debian, is it? Debian is about free software,
> last I checked.
I thought we tried to support our users in whatever they want to do?
> Second of all, it assumes that the availability of proprietary
> applications is an advantage to the user. I think this is a highly
> debatable point. I agree that there are cases where it happens to be
> true at present, but I consider this a bug ( :-) ) and work is underway
Fine, but I prefer to be a bit more realistic. There's a bunch of
software around which isn't going to become DFSG-free any time soon
(or GPL, in this particular case); until then ... ?
> to fix the problem in most cases. *I'm* not losing out by not having
> proprietary apps, because, for the most part, I wouldn't run them even
> if they *were* available.
I use software on a daily basis in my work that doesn't have free replicas.
There's certainly work afoot to create them, but they're nowhere near
being there yet (and nobody thinks otherwise).
Hamish
--
Hamish Moffatt VK3TYD hamish@debian.org, hamish@rising.com.au
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