On Wed, 2009-06-24 at 16:56 +0200, Freddie Chopin wrote: > GPL. GPL. GPL... How about Users, Users, Users? Again - The Most > Important Qestion - Is OpenOCD meant for users to use, or just to be > "100%-GPL-at-any-cost"? > > > You're the ONLY one advocating a "we-don't-care-for-X" mindset. > > Damn, I see that the opposite way - 5-10 ppl are "100% GPL" (that's > where you are) while everyone else is like "why create artificial > problems?".
Freddie, I have been involved with a number of distributed group projects and GPL is the best way to go to insure the collective work will survive the longest. Case and point. I wrote a Wireless X.25 packet switch in the 1980s, it was used world wide on Amateur Packet Radio. It was called The ROSE X.25 Packet Switch. It was not open source, I sold rights to it, ended up working on it for a year and then the project was flushed. I was burned out by this and no longer developed the switch and ROSE died. I was a core developer on osCommerce (aka The Exchange Project) that project seems to be all but dead as well, but there are many forks and some of them are still alive. Personally I still use it for one of my websites. (GPL) I have made a few changes to GNUBG (GNU Backgammon), nothing big, but every little bit helps. (GPL) I also play backgammon on FIBS (First Internet Backgammon Server) and for a while tried to get the clients used there modernized. Sadly none of them are really open source, I did get a few copies of source, but the most popular one the author will not allow it to be converted to GPL and they demand rights to any code I develop, with no rights to me (or others). (closed) I also took over a dead project that was a Tourney Robot for FIBS. The original author long lost interest, but because it was GPL and posted in a public place I was able to get the code and make improvements, after seeing those updates the author did get responsive to my questions, etc. The fact that I was able to get the source and do something without asking anyone for anything made it possible. As a developer I DO care about the license. If it is not GPL (or compatible) I will not waste my time. Now as a USER I also check the license, if it is GPL then I know I can become a developer, if needed. Could it be that the 5-10 people that are GPL 110% might just be the active developers? Tom _______________________________________________ Openocd-development mailing list Openocd-development@lists.berlios.de https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/openocd-development
