[En-Nut-Discussion] Fwd: Fwd: Nut/OS BSD License (was Re: branches\devnut_m3n and STM32F2 devices)

[Guillaume Fortaine]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: G.Di Sirio <disirio at ngi.it>
Date: Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 10:34 PM
Subject: Re: [En-Nut-Discussion] Fwd: Nut/OS BSD License (was Re:
branches\devnut_m3n and STM32F2 devices)


Hi Guillame,

Interesting indeed, I agree that Linux and
ChibiOS/Nut-OS/others-similar have different licensing issues.

This is something that troubled me a lot when I decided to turn
ChibiOS into an open source project. It is true that a BSD or similar
license would offer the greatest freedom for users but that would mean
for me to automatically surrender any right on the code. I also felt
that releasing something, basically for free, under a BSD license
could devalue it somehow. It is free, it can't be really good, right?

It is also true that a GPL license makes a "linkable" OS unusable for
commercial applications so I decided to offer it under GPL3 with a
linking exception AND alternatively under a GPL-free proprietary
license.

Hobbyists, students and small commercial users don't have problems
with GPL+exception, big corporate users usually don't want to be bound
even by a watered down GPL. IMO GPL is actually an advantage if you
want a project to remain truly open AND also try to be profitable.

So far this GPL+exception solution proved to work pretty well, the
project is growing nicely.

ciao,
Giovanni

Il 14/02/2012 19.57, Guillaume Fortaine ha scritto:

> Hello,
>
> This is an interesting debate. What do you think of it ?
>
> I look forward to your answer,
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Guillaume FORTAINE
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 5:25 AM, Henrik Maier<hmnews at proconx.com>  wrote:
>>
>> Hello Guillaume,
>>
>> In reference to the article you are referring to, the situation for an
>> embedded OS which is linked is very different to an OS like Linux. It is
>> possible to use GPLed Linux with closed source applications. But if
>> Nut/OS would be GPL, it would not be possible to keep your application
>> code closed source which some users may prefer for commercial reasons.
>>
>> I believe the reason that Nut/OS has a BSD license contributes to the
>> fact that we have a large commercial user base.
>>
>> Henrik
>>
>> On 14/02/2012 1:15 PM, Guillaume Fortaine wrote:
>>>
>>> I would greatly appreciate to invite you to a further reading of the
>>> article entitled "Opinion: License to FUD (comparing GPL and BSD)" :
>>>
>>> http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/Opinion-License-to-FUD-comparing-GPL-and-BSD/
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> http://lists.egnite.de/mailman/listinfo/en-nut-discussion