GPL unfavour

[Ian Grigg]

ESR:
> I find that one of my most difficult problems is generally soothing
> the fear and uncertainty that your rhetoric has created.

It's a double whammy.  Businesses look at the GPL and
try and work out what the effect is on their operations,
and find that it has a nasty little restriction that is
difficult to tie down.

(It's something to do with selling some changes and
having to publish.  I've never quite groked the
restriction, having read it several times, and I've
mostly come across other business people that feel
the same way.)

So, in order to tie down the restriction, more research
is done.  And this is when the religous nature of the
FSF comes out.  At this point businesses realise that
they are dealing with a bunch of idealogues, who are
on some mission from God, and they are never going to
be able to rely on the licence to be friendly to them.

The "Stallman factor" is enough to turn many companies
away.  It remains to be seen whether this will change
in the light of increasing publicity and success for GPL
(no longer a strange beast) or perhaps the waning of the
religous flavour that pervades the GPL.

iang

PS: This is of course not to say that Stallman has anything
to do with it, I'm only referring to the impression that
companies get.

PPS: It's also not to say that this is wrong.  It may be
that the ultimate successful strategy is to bet everything
on a viral religion and take over the world.