[fpc-devel] LGPL vs BSD

[Marco van de Voort]

> On Fri, 2006-08-04 at 22:38 +0200, Marco van de Voort wrote:
> > > - community projects are GPL or LGPL depending if they are libraries
> > or
> > > programs
> > > - code developed by public funds (academic etc.) gets BSD
> > 
> > I think all code that is not really in danger of hostile takeover can
> > better
> > be BSD. The extra protection of (L)GPL is not going deliver anything,
> > and
> > maybe the looser licensing yield some extra contributors.
> 
> At the same time you'll loose some developers if you're using BSD. 

Not that I know.
 
> If there's money involved, you can gain contributors with BSD, but if
> there's no money, you'll loose more of them. Most of the 'hobby'
> contributors don't like the BSD-license.

Sounds like a Slashdot Reality Distortion field. I know no sane people that
refuse to use BSD software and/or contribute to it.

Of course, you loose a few high profile cases like with embedded routers.
But IMHO those are more noise and exception than every day performance.

See all the code that is open source without grassroots community. Nearly
all fail (except some of the higher profile ones like Mozilla/Blender that
are daily on Slashdot).  The license doesn't make open source. The community
behind it does.