Re: From Lua to Python?

[Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@...>]

On 4 July 2017 at 23:34, Dibyendu Majumdar <mobile@majumdar.org.uk> wrote:
> On 4 July 2017 at 23:25, Russell Haley <russ.haley@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm referring more to the IBMs, Oracles and Tata consultancies of the
>> world. I have now seen two companies steam rolled because the original
>> authors used FOSS underpinnings and a larger consultancy rolls in and
>> just takes over the code because, well, it's GPL! I'm sure the
>> situation was more complex that I have acknowledged, but I no longer
>> trust the GPL. I'm really glad people want to share source code. I do
>> too, but I want control over what I share.
>>
>
> I am afraid your understanding of GPL is perhaps incorrect. None of
> the corporations like GPL. In fact the reason they don't like it is is
> that it is a viral license. It requires that any combined work must
> also be licensed as GPL.
>
> The only major company that licensed something as GPL was Sun when
> they released Java as GPL. This was because of the way GPL works which
> meant that Sun could still rely on people wanting a commercial
> license. Similar approach was taken by MySQL - before they were bought
> by Sun.
>
> I don't particularly like GPL because of its viral nature, therefore I
> prefer to use other licenses such as MIT. But these other licenses are
> actually ones that can be exploited more easily as they do not require
> that licensee gives anything back.
>

I should add that GPL has perhaps changed the world of software ...
both because of its success (in Linux, GNU etc.) and also because it
has forced companies to go opensource but in a more liberal way. The
world before was very different. When I started programming I could
not get hold of a C compiler because I could not afford to pay.

Regards