Alan Mackenzie <[email protected]> writes: > In gnu.misc.discuss RJack <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Reason? So do birds. flowers and trees. So what is your point? You >> are correct (for once). I don't get it. Statements usually have to >> make sense. What's your rhetorical focus? > > Quite simply, that it is the GPL itself which is the main reason for > the popularity of Linux amongst the people who write it.
Well, that's half of the story. Linux has been written to support a preexisting GNU userland. And that userland has a tradition of being popular and freely available quite before Linux. And BSD became freely available only some time after GNU/Linux. The GNU userland is unpopular among BSD developers because, well, they are BSD developers. And because their kernel of choice already comes in one package with a userland. So quite a lot of popularity of GNU/Linux comes from GNU, and not necessarily just because GNU is GPLed. > If, for some currently inconceivable reason, Linux was relicenced > under what you call a "free as in freedom" licence, many developers > would cease development. The Linux kernel developers tend not to be all too religious about licensing. Well, they do, but they call their religion pragmatism. > This might leave a mere rump, scarcely larger than the groups which > maintain the BSD kernels. I doubt it. -- David Kastrup _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
