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Re: JFS

At 10:21 PM 2/2/2000 , Jack J. Woehr wrote:

>Hmm, what's the BSDological objection to GPL? As a heathen residing outside
>the temple :-)  I was taught "GPL good, commercial software bad" by Stallman
>in person. What are the wrinkles here, please?

In four (somewhat long) sentences:

The GPL is Richard Stallman's attempt to turn open source software into a weapon
against the businesses, markets, and livelihoods of commercial developers. The
GPL, which began as part of a vendetta against a commercial spinoff of the MIT 
AI Lab where Stallman works, was explicitly intended to prevent commercial 
developers from earning more than they could as starving graduate students in
academia (See Stallman's "GNU Manifesto"). It is also designed to give Stallman's
organization, the "Free Software Foundation," control of the fates of as many open 
source computer programs and libraries as possible. While Stallman claims that
the GPL is about "freedom," the truth comes out in his more candid moments: it's
about power, control, and a 16-year grudge against anyone who wishes to make a
living by publishing software.

--Brett Glass