On Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:04:56 -0500, NDPTAL85 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Meanwhile ArsDigita has closed up shop and months ago the company that
> housed the original PostgreSQL developers shut down. Oh yeah Loki shut
> down too. When these companies shut down, the software doesn't die
> because its GPL, but thats really no consolation. If they can't afford
> to work on it any longer then the software really doesn't go anywhere.
> It just lingers and gets more and more out of date.
None of these companies wrote GPL software as their main product (if at all).
Most of Loki's offerings were closed source. These died with Loki. Other pieces
of software live or die according to their license. PostgreSQL will not die any
time soon -- there are far too many companies and individuals using it for that
to happen. Red Hat have their own database software based on PostgreSQL. If
there is enough interest in the product, the software will live. Just look at
Nautilus: Eazel failed last year but Nautilus development is alive and well. The
original developers don't have to be there; the GPL makes it simple enough for
anybody to take over if necessary. I have seen this happen time and time again
with GPL projects.
The beauty of the GPL and some other open source licenses is that they are
almost totally divorced from business cycles. Sure, some corporte input can be a
bonus, but it is hardly necessary. GPL software only really began to be noticed
by corporations in 1998, but they had been in active development since 1984. In
that time, a complete operating system had been written, complete with a
developer tools and a multitude of applications.
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan
"Life does not end at 2.4.0. Think of
it more as a "no more excuses" release."
-- Linus Torvalds
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