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JGZimmerle: My reading of the first paragraph contracts the meaning you are assigning to it. Separately distributed GPL softloading modules do not affect the status of other modules or the kernel, but a distributing a ROM image "a whole work" comprising of some GPL modules and/or a GPL kernel would come under the clause; "the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it."

GPL is the wrong licence for RISC OS. Its aim is to foster collaborative development to compete against the established commercial interests of first Unix then Windows, and to prevent that work from being bought up and suppressed, or used without permission in commercial products. Its good for that purpose, but is not the "god license" and by no means suitable for every purpose, no matter how willing people are to evangelise it.

While we want the release of RISC OS source to encourage a open source developer community feeding back enhancements for the benefit of everyone, that is not the sole aim and will not ensure the future of RISC OS. To ensure that both hardware manufacturers and software developers stick with the platform, there still needs to be financial input from commercial ventures using RISC OS in vertical markets. For RISC OS to be considered 3rd parties must be able to make their own enhancements, adding value to the product without having to make that code available to their competitors, as the GPL would require.

Lets not get lost in the license issues - over in Linux most effort is now creating noise over GPL2 vs GPL3, and we can't afford to waste time like that. If you are interested in the future of RISC OS then what’s on the table is a reasonable compromise between commercial and open source interests, and will allow us to start working and taking the OS forward.

druck on 6/10/06 3:40PM
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