@jbauer Hm.
The article seems to less criticize FOSS as a concept and more pay attention to GNU/FSF/GPL as the (pretty poor) implementation of that concept.
I think GPL wasn't intended to be *the solution* for "megacorps/'bad' people use our code and don't give back" problem, but rather a hack on top of the existing copyright system and the state of society, substituting the actual solution at societal level, as you rightfully say.
"[GPL] also prevents literally any other non-GPL-licensed project from using GPL-licensed code, even other FOSS projects."
That's what LGPL is for (kinda). You can link a, say, MIT-licensed program against LGPL library. Alternatively, you can use MPL (also FOSS license) to allow straight embedding your code into someone else's project. What I'm trying to say is that GPL can't be and isn't one-size-fits-all license.
Other than that, that's a nice read.
Indeed, the significance of FSF is rather low nowadays, and GNU software might even do more harm that good (why yes, of course I *love* glibc and gcc extensions); but I believe FOSS itself is still very important.
Thanks for writing up!
The article seems to less criticize FOSS as a concept and more pay attention to GNU/FSF/GPL as the (pretty poor) implementation of that concept.
I think GPL wasn't intended to be *the solution* for "megacorps/'bad' people use our code and don't give back" problem, but rather a hack on top of the existing copyright system and the state of society, substituting the actual solution at societal level, as you rightfully say.
"[GPL] also prevents literally any other non-GPL-licensed project from using GPL-licensed code, even other FOSS projects."
That's what LGPL is for (kinda). You can link a, say, MIT-licensed program against LGPL library. Alternatively, you can use MPL (also FOSS license) to allow straight embedding your code into someone else's project. What I'm trying to say is that GPL can't be and isn't one-size-fits-all license.
Other than that, that's a nice read.
Indeed, the significance of FSF is rather low nowadays, and GNU software might even do more harm that good (why yes, of course I *love* glibc and gcc extensions); but I believe FOSS itself is still very important.Thanks for writing up!
