Re: Questions

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

       - should the GNOME project requires that Bonobo components be released
	 under the LGPL to be part of the platform (I tend to think so)

In decisions like this one, the fact that we are working on free
software, not on open source, takes on vital importance.  The two
movements have different goals, and that difference is relevant here.

Miguel and I based our decision of the GNOME policies on the free
software goal.  We decided that low-level and general-purpose library
components use the LGPL, while higher level and more specialized
libraries use the GPL so as to provide an advantage to free software.

See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html for more
information on how the GNU Project approaches this question.
GNOME decisions should be based on that general approach.


By the way, HIV spreads through a specific kind of contact; the GPL,
once again, does not do that.  So this modified version of the
comparison is still inaccurate.  But more than that, it is unfriendly
to GNU and in particular to GNOME, since the GPL is the principal
license used in GNOME.  It does not look good when a GNOME Foundation
board member says things that are likely to bring GNOME into
disrepute.