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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!ix.netcom.com!enews.sgi.com!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!sn.no!nntp.uio.no!news.apfel.de!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-koe1.dfn.de!main.Germany.EU.net!Dortmund.Germany.EU.net!interface-business.de!usenet From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc Subject: Re: Linux vs whatever Date: 29 Jan 1997 13:12:21 GMT Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden Lines: 25 Message-ID: <5cnibl$mpn@innocence.interface-business.de> References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <5c39sk$ddl@troma.rv.tis.com> <5c8jlm$50u@cynic.portal.ca> <m23evrulla.fsf@desk.crynwr.com> <32EA25AB.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> <5qC7y0gTzDLB091yn@ibm.net> <32ECB442.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> <32ED1866.34F02393@indiana.edu> <32ED4897.193@indy.celebration.net> <877mkxslwx.fsf@localhost.xs4all.nl> Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch) NNTP-Posting-Host: ida.interface-business.de X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.6 X-Phone: +49-351-31809-14 X-Fax: +49-351-3361187 X-PGP-Fingerprint: DC 47 E6 E4 FF A6 E9 8F 93 21 E0 7D F9 12 D6 4E Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:154903 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2097 Peter Mutsaers <plm@xs4all.nl> wrote: > Also in commercial settings GPL'd code is used quite a lot. I know of > many commercial packages (such as several expensive real-time kernels, > OSI stack software, etc. etc.) that use gcc, gdb etc. Also GNU stuff > is used a lot in commercial environments. I've worked for 4 companies > and in all of them GNU products (including Linux at 2 sites) were used > extensively. Using gcc is (fortunately) not a problem, using other GNU tools neither. The only problem with the GPL is their definition of a `derived work', which makes your entires 10000 lines project GPLed even by including some 50 lines of GPLed code from outside. For self-contained programs (gcc, gdb), GPL is not a big deal. I've even seen Data General's DG/UX shipping with gcc as the sole compiler. Even using LGPLed libraries is less of a problem, since the implication of making your own .o's available (so the user is free to relink against a newer version of the library -- regardless whether this makes sense or not) is not problematic either. -- J"org Wunsch Unix support engineer joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de http://www.interface-business.de/~j