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0 pointsatomicnumber311mo ago0 comments

It's bizarre to me how, despite people criticizing the GPL and GNU as too ideological, the people you refer to - the permissive people - somehow seem even MORE ideological. The GPL to me seems pragmatic - sure technically a minimal license like WTFPL (ignore all its legal issues for now) is some kind of minimalist idea of pure objective freedom. But the GPL has some key "restrictions" that aren't really restrictions and produce an ecosystem that WORKS. Meanwhile the permissive ecosystem is just waiting to be scooped up by bigcos at their whim.

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asddubs11mo ago

well, it's worth noting that since microsoft is also releasing the source code, the same thing could have happened with GPL. Though I suspect the author would be even less happy if they had done all the same stuff (minus removing the copyright notice, even) and then not released the source, so that's not me arguing against the GPL

I also think in practice microsoft would have been less likely to actually take the code, and probably would just have reimplemented the ideas in it if it was GPL

oehpr11mo ago

Just wanted to highlight your last point so that it's clear. Microsoft reimplementing the authors project was exactly what they wanted! To see a different implementation. A different "take".

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0 pointsatomicnumber311mo ago0 comments

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asddubs11mo ago

I also think in practice microsoft would have been less likely to actually take the code, and probably would just have reimplemented the ideas in it if it was GPL

oehpr11mo ago

Just wanted to highlight your last point so that it's clear. Microsoft reimplementing the authors project was exactly what they wanted! To see a different implementation. A different "take".

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse