2007/12/11 Uwe Dippel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:20:00 -0800, Matthew Dempsky wrote: > I don't see a need to reconcile the two sides. (It would be good if that > was possible, though.) Unfortunately, BSD and GNU come from different perspective, hence different philosophy of what free and open source software could/would/should be.
In my opinion (and I welcome correction on this one), BSD historically came from the perspective of academically improving a proprietary AT&T software while moving away from the original proprietary code and fully disclose the improved code while still providing for the proprietary software to incorporate those academic improvements with further option to keep their proprietary enhancement to themselves. This option for incorporating and optionally withholding those improvements is what many cite as BSD's more liberal licensing feature. GNU and GPL, on the other hand, comes from the struggle against proprietary software entities and ward off interest of incorporating free and open source code into the fold of closed-source proprietary software thus ensuring the availability of the source code for enhancement and oblige the availability of those improvements to all. This obligation on the part of those improving the source code is criticized as restrictive, but it guarantees full source code improvement/change disclosure. -- Tito Mari Francis H. Escaqo Computer Engineer and Free Software Proponent
