"Yigal Chripun" <yigal...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:gql5ou$2te...@digitalmars.com... > On 27/03/2009 19:17, Steven Schveighoffer wrote: >> >> This is the kind of mentality I think that completely goes against >> progress, and it's fostered by the GPL. I'm not saying the GPL is >> useless, but I see little to no value in a for-profit company using it >> unless they are forced to. And there's this holier-than-thou attitude >> from GPL supporters that completely sucks. >> >> Anyway, I agree that the world could do just as good without GPL. Maybe >> it was necessary in the beginning, but not any more. >> >> -Steve > > Both proprietary and free software have a place in the world since they > serve different purposes. > for instance, I wouldn't want military software to be available online > with the risk of being exploited by terrorists but on the other hand I > wouldn't want to use any non reasonably free COTS software. When you buy a > car you are free to look under the hood and the same should apply to > software. sure, the manufacturer can and probably should void any warranty > if you mess with the internals of its product, but they shouldn't prevent > you access to those internals. > > "I see little to no value in a for-profit company using it [the GPL]" > how do you explain Red-Hat's success? there are many many companies that > gain a lot by using GPL and they are certainly not forced to use it. > > I agree with you that there are zealots with that holier-than-thou > attitude and that this really sucks. by saying - "I agree that the world > could do just as good without GPL. Maybe it was necessary in the > beginning, but not any more. " you just joined the group of zealots. > > As I already said, in reality, both proprietary and free software are > useful since they fulfill different requirements. saying otherwise is > stupid and wrong.
I think you've misunderstood him. Maybe I'm the one who's mistaken, but I interpreted what he said as being "BSD/zlib/etc > GPL" rather than "proprietary is better than free/open/whatever-you-wanna-call-it".