Re: Using GPL for LibGTop with an exception for the GNOME Project

[Eric Kidd <eric kidd pobox com>]

On Sun, Feb 21, 1999 at 05:17:26AM -0800, George wrote:
> I usually prefer LGPL libs since they don't force any license even on
> free-but-not-gpl projects ... a GPL library is unusable in a non-GPL free
> software ... could one make a new license that would be a cross between
> GPL and LGPL ... it would allow only free software (according to some
> definition) to be linked with it, but it itself would be covered under
> the same rules as LGPL .... but it wouldn't allow proprietory software to
> be linked with it

There's nothing wrong with putting a library under the GPL, but it *does*
prevent some of us from using it in free software. At my day job, I write
code with an MIT-style license (similar to that of XFree86), and I lack the
influence to change the license. 

The package in question is a multithreaded, high-performance mail server
which I'm porting to Linux. One of the server's features isn't available
under Linux--it has built-in monitoring of processor load, free disk space
and other server statistics. I was considering using LibGTop to implement
this feature, but this won't be possible if LibGTop is GPL'd instead of
LGPL'd.

So here are two problems with using the GPL instead of the LGPL:

 * Another free software project will either loose a feature or waste time
   rewriting half of LibGTop.
 * I won't be able to convince my boss to let me port LibGTop to strange
   (and currently unsupported) Unix systems.

Now, I don't much care (my boss will either accept that this feature is
missing on Linux, or pay me to implement it), and LibGTop *is* your
library. So I won't tell you it's wrong to use the GPL, but I want you to
understand all the consequences. ;-)

Cheers,
Eric