1. RE : GPL
- Posted by Mathew Hounsell <mfh03 at UOW.EDU.AU>
Feb 26, 2000
-
Last edited Feb 27, 2000
Ahhh, GPL.
GPL is only a viable licence if you believe in the underlying philosophy. That
is that by
releasing the source of a program you are helping the programming world, who
will then help
you. People then can develop from your product. Your product thus improves you
make
money and everyone is happy. Right ???
Well not entirely. Let us examine GNU's golden child, Linux. Is Linux's success
because of
GPL ? Simplely, no. It's base existance and driver support is however. It's
success is because
of media coverage because of commercial suppliers. These suppliers inform the
computer
media of their product providing demo's and showing how wonderful it all is.
Good commercial
developments have helped Linux. Yet I still have real problems with X Free 86.
GNU still has not produced GNU's Not Unix. It is still being developed long
after it's creation.
There are problems with Open Source, especially with a good product, however
restrictive
licences are also hampering. I was looking for a scripting language and first
looked at VBA,
saw it involved, an unspecified, price and bolted. I couldn't even find mention
of JavaScript's
licence.
With libraries I suggest you make it's source public, and let people use it
without worry. GPL
worries many developers as it could harm remuneration, if their product
succeeds.
Languages are another matter. It was the commercial product that helped make
C++. It was
good marketing and oppurtunism that made Java the buzzword, for a while.
Unfortunately Euphoria doesn't have that chance in it's current incarnation. It
hasn't exploited
trends and hopes. Some base code is platform independant but that is obscured by
other
factor's. Euphoria needs an AWT and latter a Swing. It needs Internet
capabilities.
I personally think a compiler would do wonders. It would be hard to decompile a
binary library.
Also compared with other work I doubt it would be worth the effort.
The greatest risks yield the greatest rewards.
-------------------------
Sincerely,
Mathew Hounsell
mat.hounsell at excite.com
