How long is linux going to be free ?
Hi,
Just loaded OpenBSD and Debian Linux onto my laptop.
Unlike 3 years back, every thing looks very stable now
and hardware drivers are available for almost
everything. Started liking these OS very much and want
to eventually use these for all my needs. The reason
for using Debian over other flavors of linux is
because i know about GNU way before i heard linux for
the first time. I just thought, if i have to try a
free OS then try a completely free OS instead
of not so free OS's.
Since i started liking the Debian Linux, i started
thinking about Linux in general and thus some
questions about linux in the long term.
I am not talking about debian in particular but linux
in general
1. How long is it going to be free ?
2. Is there any possibility of this becoming a
copyrighted software in future ? ( i mean some
company taking over and saying that only i am the
owner and only i can make modifications)
First let me make it clear that i do understand the
meaning of free as in "freedom" and not as in ($).
Right now the reason why i installed is because it is
both free as in $( i just downloaded from net) and
free(i can make modifications to source and do almost
anything i want).
While it may look like it impossible for linux to
become non free(copyrighted) some day. because any s/w
besed on gpl needs to be gpled. i don't think so, i
may be wrong, but i really don't know how it all
works.
so asking questions and discussing with people is a
good way to gain some understanding of the unknown
territory.
There are 2 things which i would like to mention
firstly people who forget history are condemned to
repeat it, secondly anything which has no value can
not be sold and so they are free(like free medicines
from your physicians before they are tested). what
happens once it gets a value and becomes marketable.
free starts becoming proprietary(we do it in a
different way) and then copyrighted(restrictive).
The intermediate stage is might look like "well....
the executable is free but not the dll".
people start using a graphics file format for 5 years
because they think it is free, create millions of
graphics and one fine day it's not free because the
compression algorithm it is based on is patented.
when no body uses no body cares but when millions of
people start using it then it does not take a long
time
So are there any tabs here in linux where it can not
become not free in future. so any gpl derived software
needs to be gpled but what about the other way, can
you start including non gpled software ,closed sourced
modules in gpled software. if that is possible then
with each new release can included a included a lot of
non gpled software being used from gpled, eventually
by the time you get into version 50.0 it might become
2% free and 98% not free. looks like some flavors of
linux are going that way.
i can be completely wrong,but nothing wrong in asking
questions, i don't know anything about linux ,trying
to understand the concept of free etc etc i just want
about what to people contributing,using think about
this.
thanks
Srinivas
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