On 01/05/2011 02:05 PM, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote: > On Wed, 2011-01-05 at 13:44 +0530, Shamit Verma wrote: >> So that people who benefit from your efforts "have to" contribute back >> by >> giving access to source code for the enhancements. > > the idea of *forcing* people to contribute is repugnant to me. They > should have the freedom to choose whether to contribute back or not. BSD > gives them the choice.
The subtle thing about the GPL requirement is you are not *forced* to contribute back if decide not to redistribute. The core principle here is extend to your users the same courtesy that you received -- which IMHO is not a repugnant idea. Philosophy aside tho', even engineering wise, it is more efficient when people contribute back since one does not spend time reinventing (reimplementing?) the (improved) wheel. >> >> Case in point, OSX. Linux/BSD do not have a desktop environment >> comparable >> to OSX. OSX is developed on top of BSD. If BSD license had terms >> similar to >> Linux, Apple would have had to provide source code for enhancements. >> With >> that, Linux would have benefited from a better user experience. > > I have used OSX for nearly three years and can testify that their > desktop environment sucks big time compared to linux - no great loss. I could twist this into a variety of other flames (like KDE Vs Gnome) ...but am too old for it now :) cheers, - steve -- random spiel: http://lonetwin.net/ what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/ -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
