[linux-audio-dev] New form of GPL licence that protects Linux from proprietary world [was: New powermacs?]

[Vincent Touquet]

On Sat, Jun 21, 2003 at 08:22:37PM -0400, Ivica Bukvic wrote:
>However this brings up one interesting point/problem. Due to GPL nature
>of Linux software, many of our efforts will seamlessly bleed into OS X
>world since there are no restrictions as to which platform this software
>is run on, and Apple made an explicit move to target open-source
>developers and/or users by implementing Darwin and underlying
>almost-Unix system.
Yep especially since Gentoo/Fink/... announced they would be
cooperating.

>To me this is a problem. Since, all our efforts and time will not lure
>more people to Linux. Rather, our software will (perhaps) become popular
>(pro-tools killer or whatever), but not necessarily on a Linux platform.
>In the end, we will not reap what we have sown. Users on the OS X will
>be theoretically able to run Ardour as much as we will, especially now
>that jackd has been ported to OS X. To me, this does not seem right.
A port is a port.
We have the capability to pinpoint bottlenecks in the kernel,
and if its a bug, it will get fixed, provided we yell loud enough.
Try that on Mac OS X. Not everything is open in the OS X world.

>Perhaps we should make a mended version of GPL that would have exact
>permissions like the original GPL license, but in addition would ask
>that the software cannot be run on top of proprietary OS. 
That's not very Free is it ?

(cut)
>What do you think?
Unnecessary.
Would take time off from writing these great apps to politics.
Let's not get into that. We are free, and so are our users.
They should respect the GPL, so we can develop in all freedom.
We needn't restrict them to a platform.
Remember how angry we would be when forced to use a common
platform (even a common *nix distro or even kernel ;).

v