Someone has to be first, right? One main reason why we created
TigerVNC was that we should be able to work faster, move faster. So it
might not be surprising that the "slower" projects have not yet migrated.
Be careful. One of those "slower" projects is the very one you're
trying to siphon performance enhancements off of. Our project chose to
remain with GPL v2 not because of slowness but because we didn't like
the provisions of GPL v3. I suspect that many projects have made this
With "slower" projects I meant projects that haven't yet considered the v3
migration issue at all. Obviously, TurboVNC is not such a project.
I'm not saying that it's bad to take it "slow" either, I'm just saying
that v3 is after all quite new and time is one factor that explains why
there are still many projects which haven't migrated to v3.
I respect that, but the motivation for doing this is to prevent people
from using the code in a way that we don't but which is still allowed
by v2. Say, IGEL.
OK, so can you explain the loophole in GPL v2 that they exploited?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization seems to explain it quite good.
As far as I understand, this policy is not new to v3; it's been in the
FSF FAQ for many years and applies to v2 as well.
We've had this discussion at length on the TightVNC list before, so I
won't repeat it here. In a nutshell, different lawyers disagree on
this. The OSI, for instance, doesn't believe that, if the GPL were
tested in court, it would even apply to static linking, much less
dynamic. There are a lot of grey areas to the argument, though.
I agree, there are different interpretations and this is a grey area, but
in my opinion, v3 provides some good clarifications.
Additionally, I find the language in paragraph 1 of the GPL v3 which
defines "corresponding source" to include "all the source code needed to
generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and
to modify the work, including scripts to control those activities" to be
somewhat draconian and open to all sorts of bad interpretations (for
instance, if you require a newer version of Java to run your object
code, does that mean you have to ship Java?)
Regardless of whether one think this new wording is good or bad, please
note that this already applies to TigerVNC and TurboVNC, since they are
"v2+". Users can choice v3 if they want.
In general, I think that choosing GPL v3 is giving up some of our
freedom in exchange for the promise of additional security.
I understand.
To summarize: I understand that you both sees a need for v2 compatibility
as well as have some doubts over the v3 wording. Since the current source
is v2+, we cannot "get rid of" v3 entirely; I guess you have to accept it.
When it comes to keeping v2 compatibility, I understand that this is
important to you, but you haven't yet convinced me. The main argument as I
understand it is to allow code copying to v2 projects, but I don't see a
real need for this.
In any case, a migration to v3 is not a "must" for me. I'm fine with
sticking to v2+ as well, at least for some additional time. What I'm
suggesting is that we keep v2+ for now and then we can revisit the issue
sometimes in the future. By then, we can take another look at how many
projects have migrated to v3, how many projects that have copied source
from us, how big the Tivoization problem has been etc. Is everyone happy
with this approach?
Best regards,
---
Peter Åstrand ThinLinc Chief Developer
Cendio AB http://www.cendio.com
Wallenbergs gata 4
583 30 Linköping Phone: +46-13-21 46 00
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