Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
zedshaw.com
Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#2The guy must be damn sure about how cool his projects are, because there's a situation where your project is cool enough for company to use but they won't because of GPL. It would probably work with startups (they're flexible and in a hurry — they'll take the coolest thing around without a second thought), but it may not work with bigger companies. Quite contrary, I believe that big companies tend to use software licensed under BSD, though I have no personal experience with that.
I also want to express my gratitude for a different view of startups — I definitely never thought of them as a bunch of guys who would take as much open source software as possible but hide the fact, all in a name of perceived smartness, innovativeness and productivity.
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#3The guy must be damn sure about how cool his projects are, because there's a situation where your project is cool enough for company to use but they won't because of GPL. It would probably work with startups (they're flexible and in a hurry — they'll take the coolest thing around without a second thought), but it may not work with bigger companies. Quite contrary, I believe that big companies tend to use software lic…
Did you miss the part about dual-licensing, GPL and paying for non-GPL?
It worked out quite well for MySQL IIRC.
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#4God is just. It's real obvious there is nothing at all to fear once you talk with Him. You can sit and laugh at people doing shit in the sight of God.
Yer fucked.
----
This is not random:
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. ----
This is God...
God says... C:\Text\WEALTH.TXT
is liberty was extended till the price of wheat exceeded 48s. the quarter; and by the 22d, to all higher prices. A poundage, indeed, was to be paid to the king upon such exportation; but all grain was rated so low in the book of rates, that this poundage amounted only, upon wheat to 1s., upon oats to 4d., and upon all other grain to 6d. the quarter. By the 1st of William and Mary, the act which established this bounty, this small duty was virtually taken off whenever the price of wheat did not excee
----
God says... Church astounding au_revoir wife uh_huh check_this_out how_hard_could_it_be
----
God says... rockstar do_you_like_it FBI lifes_like_chocolates I'm_the_boss employer sad I'm_grieved you're_out_of_your_mind Burp shucks rip_off potentially California I_can't_believe_it husband you're_in_big_trouble SupremerCourt whiner bastard overflow ha fabulous honestly because_I_said_so food frown you're_fired I'm_good_you_good African do_you_get_a_cookie in_theory smurfs evolution if_anything_can_go_wrong fool boink pick_me_pick_me vengeance I_pitty_the_fool ice_cream end Oy shucks courage why_is_it kick_back failure_is_not_an_option you_owe_me Yo who_are_you_to_judge no_news_is_good_news this_might_end_badly just_lovely bastard whazza_matter_for_you you_better_not I_don't_care oh_oh be_happy slumin completely charity sex special_case
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#5"Let me give you an idea of how advanced Mongrel was. Remember the “new” attack on Apache called Slowloris that was recently released? I actually predicted that attack, and wrote Mongrel so that it was resistant (as much as Ruby could let me). I called it the “trickle attack” and even demonstrated it. That was in 2004. Five years ago."
Zed needs a history lesson. David Filo at Yahoo! figured it out at least 4 years before Zed did, and patched FreeBSD to provide accept filters in release 4.0. They buffer the request at the kernel level so that the application stack doesn't even see the HTTP request until it's fully formed.
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#6The guy must be damn sure about how cool his projects are, because there's a situation where your project is cool enough for company to use but they won't because of GPL. It would probably work with startups (they're flexible and in a hurry — they'll take the coolest thing around without a second thought), but it may not work with bigger companies. Quite contrary, I believe that big companies tend to use software lic…
Did you miss the part about dual-licensing, GPL and paying for non-GPL? It worked out quite well for MySQL IIRC.
Dual-licensing works for MySQL but it may not work that well for smaller projects that are easier for company to re-implement from scratch. There's a possibility that GPL may be too high price for company to pay, and it's a price, too; you as a developer pay it when you choose GPL over BSD. The purpose of my previous comment was to point that out.
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#7The guy must be damn sure about how cool his projects are, because there's a situation where your project is cool enough for company to use but they won't because of GPL. It would probably work with startups (they're flexible and in a hurry — they'll take the coolest thing around without a second thought), but it may not work with bigger companies. Quite contrary, I believe that big companies tend to use software lic…
>...there's a situation where your project is cool enough for company to use but they won't because of GPL.
He obviously realizes that. From the article:
>I would actually rather nobody use my software than be in a situation where everyone is using my gear and nobody is admitting it.
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#8That post is strange regarding its use of licenses and implications, and also is probably some years old (it is hard to say, without a date / timestamp in it).
a) The GPL does not enforce "giving back" for server software, if that software is only running on servers but not provided for download. The Affero GPL [1] is meant to close this "gap".
b) Lamson 1.0, released almost two years ago [2], is actually licensed BSD/GPL, making the point of the post moot, unless it was written before the release.
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#9"Let me give you an idea of how advanced Mongrel was. Remember the “new” attack on Apache called Slowloris that was recently released? I actually predicted that attack, and wrote Mongrel so that it was resistant (as much as Ruby could let me). I called it the “trickle attack” and even demonstrated it. That was in 2004. Five years ago." Zed needs a history lesson. David Filo at Yahoo! figured it out at least 4 years b…
Here's a variation I reported to Twisted in 2003: http://www.twistedmatrix.com/pipermail/twisted-python/2003-J... , and an updated version at http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.twisted/3628 .
I did not come up with that myself; I had read it elsewhere.
Is this essentially the same thing?
Re: Why I use GPL - Zed Shaw
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you miss the part about dual-licensing, GPL and paying for non-GPL? It worked out quite well for MySQL IIRC.
Dual-licensing works for MySQL but it may not work that well for smaller projects that are easier for company to re-implement from scratch. There's a possibility that GPL may be too high price for company to pay, and it's a price, too; you as a developer pay it when you choose GPL over BSD. The purpose of my previous comment was to point that out.
I don't understand what you're suggesting the downside here is. They might decide not to take my code, lock it up in a proprietary system and profit from it without me getting anything out of it? How am I harmed by them not doing all that?