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Re: We still don't have something as good as windows? 23 February 2010 00:20
I don't "think all startups must run Linux or something licensed with
the GPL": you wrote "the FSF haven't done a single thing" and I
simply pointed out that nearly all startups used GNU GPL licensed
code.
Yes, maybe you "could run a startup using python and running on
FreeBSD, making webapps in Django and I could do as great or better
than any startup that uses any piece of software licensed with the
GPL" but the interesting thing is that nobody has.
Most commentators put that down to the fact that the GNU GPL creates
a better-balanced ecosystem than other licences - specifically, in
terms of handling free riders and encouraging people to feed back
their modifications.
So it's not true that I'm saying "that open source and sharing
information and code can only be done with the GPL." Instead, it's
the *market* choosing to deploy GNU GPL'd code - presumably because
the vast majority of startups think it is better.
As to the nature of the GPL's freedom, the key point is that the
constraints it puts on programmers are there to preserve the freedom
of end-users (who may also be programmers). Similarly, licences that
are more "free", because they allow a wider range of uses, give less
freedom to the end-users - who may, again, be programmers.
It's the same in ordinary society: people do not have arbitrary
freedom to take away the freedom of others: they are constrained in
their freedom in order to preserve the freedom of others. So what
the GNU GPL is doing here is nothing extraordinary.
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