🚀 go-pugleaf

[First off, I know it's a bad title.  It's presently Thu Aug 15
02:30:35 EDT 1991 right now and I'm tired.]

Say I am an OS vendor (any stripe).  Say that I have decided to
include the GNU version of getopt(), or the regex library, in my libc.
Like a good citizen, I include the source code, and the COPYING file
(perhaps as entries in libc.a itself).  Now say an Evil Software
Hoarder(mt) writes a program that uses those routines.

This creates a problem.  Either the E.S.H. must release their software
under the G(LG)?PL---depending on the status of the versions of getopt
or regex that I used---or they must strike out upon their own and do
it.  Unless, of course, I provide shared libraries.  Or maybe not...?

In all seriousness, what happens in the situation where the vendor
does this.  I would like to see a situation where the E.S.H. is free
to like against libc-vendor-supplied libraries containing GNU
routines, because the vendor has already provided any possible users
of the program with the source code as required by the appropriate
license.  This is especially clear with shared libraries.

When we have a GNU OS with a GNU libc, will it be possible for
E.S.H.'s to write proprietary software for such a system?

It seems that the basic theory behind the GPL and its cousins is that
"if the user is willing to pay for a license for a program,
distribution, manuals, and support, then surely they are willing to
purchase any of these which they actually need from some third party."
This seems to me to be a complete concession of the "end-user" or
"real-world" software market to the proprietary firms, and this
saddens me.  Why do I think so?  Because I don't believe that the
quoted statement is a true statement when "user" refers to someone in
the "real world," for the same reason that people buy frozen dinners
and shop in sterile vacuum-sealed shopping malls.  If there is no
way of dealing with this problem, then there will always be
proprietary vendors, because "end-users" will prefer to purchase that
kind of product.  Pity.


-GAWollman

"Just rambling..."
-- 
Garrett A. Wollman - wollman@emily.uvm.edu - kira!wollman

Disclaimer:  I'm not even sure this represents *my* opinion, never
mind UVM's, EMBA's, EMBA-CF's, or indeed anyone else's.