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Public Domain Python

Huaiyu Zhu hzhu at users.sourceforge.net
Wed Sep 20 18:02:43 EDT 2000 
On Mon, 18 Sep 2000 22:10:56 +0100, Grant Griffin <g2 at seebelow.org> wrote:
>
>For example, imagine how much better the world would be if Linux were
>"truly free" instead of perpetually encumbered by that whole nutty
>copyleft ball-and-chain thing.  Now wouldn't the world be a better
>place?
>
>(BTW, that last paragraph clearly was a "troll".  Please don't encourage
>my fundamental flaws by responding to them. <wink>)

I have not joined this discussion before, but I'll take this troll.

You don't need to imagine it, because there are already many examples. There
are many BSDs that are "truly free" in your sense.  They may even be better
than Linux from engineering point of view.  They are just not as popular,
which feeds back on itself and manifest in the relative lack in the variety
of application software.

Is there a correlation between GPL and greater user participation?  I think
there is.  Let me explain.

For me, and many others, the biggest fear about software ownership is like
the fear of locking up your valuable stuff in a locker owned by someone else
without having a key, with the knowledge that the owner of the locker could
throw it out at any time at their own will. [1] 

Many people want commercial software for no other reason but the perceived
stability and support.  They want stuff from big-named companies as
something to rely on.  It doesn't matter if this is rational.

In the free world the corresponding big-name is GNU.  It has the same kind
(even much better) attributes associated with big-name companies: brand
name, longivity, user base, support, and big-teeth legal stuff.  When I have
something that works with GNU software, I really feel that I own it,
forever.

Just as some people have a feeling that "if it's from MS, it's got solid
background", I have a feeling that "if it's GNU, it IS solid".  Is this
rational?  Maybe partially.  But rationality doesn't matter.  Software world
is a stage for Darwinian evolution.  The only definition of "fairness" I
would go with is whether it makes life generally better for the community.
>From all its achievements I would say that GNU played successfully and
fairly. There are companies that played successfully, but unfairly, BTW.

Now what has this to do with public domain, and with Python?  Well, I missed
Python for many years.  The first time I saw Python was from a GPL'ed
software [2].  I was beginning to appreciate the usefulness of a "freer
licence" than GPL, when all of us witnessed the current Python licence
fiasco.  My reaction is that in the future if I put anything valuable out in
public I'll only do it under GPL.  That's the only way to feel safe.

If Python had been GPL'ed from the very beginning, would it be better or
worse off? This is anybody's guess, but it is sure that its licencing status
would be much more stable and simpler than it is today.

Since this is answering a troll, and since this is largely a personal
observation, I'm not going to talk back, generally.

Huaiyu

[1] I never write anything in MSWord unless it's throw-away stuff.

[2] I first saw Python in an exception traceback from RedHat's installer
while reinstalling RedHat on a faulty harddrive.  I got to the file that
produced it and got a feeling of what it's doing there, even though that's
the first time I saw any Python.  I said to myself, "this looks like a cool
language".  Had it been GPL'ed I might have noticed it much earlier.
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