GPL License Debates

It's supposed to be against the GPL, but no one is willing to chase it.

I get GPL and fully appreciate its philosophy. The problem happens when you actually use it in practice. Because of its viral nature, anyone with different licensing must convert to GPL if they use your code. For many scenarios, this is actually not possible not just because of commercial secrets but the potential for opening up for security vulnerabilities when you don’t have resources or competitions where you should keep code secret until some time or simply because you have dependencies on o

As long as the Linux kernel exists, the GPL won't die. As long as cooperation want to use Linux, they will touch GPL'd software. As long as you don't modify that software, there's no harm to the cooperation.Besides, there's compelling reasons for companies to GPL software they code which doesn't overlap with their core business. If you happen to code a new testing framework because you need one, you can GPL it and profit from the community improving it. In that c

Nobody is saying that it's an excuse to not respect the GPL.

You're probably correct. GPL is (unreasonably) radioactive to many companies.

GPLv3, as it protects from patent trolls and also encourages creating an better ecosystem.There are companies that refuse to use GPLed code. They want to modify and then sell closed forks of your product, without paying you, and by doing so they fragment the userbase. GPL prevents this.If you want to allow them to do so you can always switch to BSD or dual-license - perhaps after a private agreement and if you find the companies reputable.

Has using GPL-licensed code prevented anyone else from being acquired? That really struck me...

Corporate interests != GPL is not on the cards

Old(?) school open source with GPL licenses doesn't seem to suffer from this, on a first glance. Maybe Stallman was right. Would love to hear from someone more knowledgeable on this. I'm not trying to troll.

People who are not okay with being forked should reconsider their decision to be use the GPL.