On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 10:23:46PM -0700, Deke Clinger wrote:
Well, I find the Linux "License Whiners" particularly annoying because
Linus went out of his way to choose the GPL (which chooses to be
incompatible with certain things itself) and then modified the GPL such
that it is even incompatible with later GPL's.
Beg pardon? Linus modified the GPL? I'm under the impression that the
Linux kernel is licensed under GPLv2. I'm not aware of any
Linux-specific 'fork' of the GPL.
The Linux kernel is under the same GPLv2 that the FSF wrote.
The GPLv2 is already incompatible with GPLv3, which is why the FSF always
recommend people say "GPL Version 2 or later" in copyright comments. Linus
chose to explicitly restrict the kernel to version 2. The GPLv2 is
incompatible with many things, which is one of the things changed about v3.
He also has a clarification about the license of the kernel not covering
user programs that use the kernel service by normal system calls.
The text of the license itself is unchaged, and he even acknowledges that
the license itself is copyrighted by the FSF.
David
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