I'm afraid I have to agree with Marinus on this point.
Interesting idea to `grep` the licenses on a Debian VPS system, but I
think they represent a particular subset of software, many of which have
been core components of GNU/Linux for a long time, when copyleft
licenses likely had a larger following. Like Marinus said, and to the
best of my knowledge, a big majority of new software published on
platforms such as GitLab or GitHub uses permissive licenses with MIT
being one of the most popular. I distinctly remember a graph published,
probably by GitHub, or the proportion of different licenses used and the
graph shows this trend. (sorry I can't find the original graph right now)
Also, of the GNU/Linux distributions, Debian (while not 100% free
software according to the FSF) is a relatively strong advocate of
software freedom, and more likely to include more
GPL'ed/copyleft-licensed software.
On 9/23/20 6:24 PM, Marinus Savoritias wrote:
If you think there is more and more GPL license I hope you never got to
Github or Gitlab. There is a huge surprise coming your way.
Marinus Savoritias
On 9/23/20 12:14 AM, Jean Louis wrote:
* Marinus Savoritias <[email protected]> [2020-09-23 00:42]:
The problem is though that if somebody wants to write a program he
doesn't
want to have meetings with lawyers first. He just wants to write a
program.
By making it harder for people to start writing a program you end up
in a
situation where nobody uses your license. And then you have the title
of the
original email. Which seems to come true if GPL is as hard as you
say it is.
As I continually use mostly the GNU GPL licensed software, I do not
see it that way that one ends up in situation where nobody uses your
license, as there are no specific statistics about it -- and my
personal opinion is that now there is more than ever GNU GPL licensed
software.
If company wish to produce program, they do consult a lawyer. If
single person wish to program, that one will usually learn about
licensing and will decide about it.
So let me give you example from one of my Debian VPS servers:
- I did not verify all packages, as I do not know the method. I know
that most of Debian packages hold documentation in /usr/share/doc,
so I keep there documentation for 1493 packages.
admin@server:/usr/share/doc$ find . -name copyright -exec grep -l "The
Regents of the University" {} \;|wc
grep: ./python3-debian/examples/copyright: Is a directory
159 159 3784
So I got 159 results for The Regents, I guess it is permissive
license. It is not accurate.
find . -name copyright -exec grep -l "Free Software Foundation" {} \;|wc
grep: ./python3-debian/examples/copyright: Is a directory
905 905 23657
So I have got about 905 results for GPL licenses.
I guess that results are not accurate. 429 other files could be as
well different licenses.
At my server there is majority of GNU GPL licensed software. That is
one particular and specific statistic.
That is why I cannot agree with it that nobody uses the licenses, GNU
GPL is most popular license and there is more and more GNU GPL
software.
Jean
_______________________________________________
libreplanet-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
