Re: GPL vs. sweatshops (was Re: Bias)

Am Don, 2002-06-13 um 15.27 schrieb Deven T. Corzine:
 
> Maybe so.  I was hoping it would just be usual IPC mechanisms like shared 
> memory, messages, semaphores and the like.  Those ought to be fairly easy 
> to map onto underlying Linux equivalents.  If it's an order of magnitude or 
> two more complicated than that, it may be bigger than I can find time for.

I am not sure, but Windows and Unix handle many things very differently.
It looks simple in the first place, but if it really was simple, wine
would have had 100% Windows functionality 5 years ago. Remember you have
to deal with all those undocumented Windows features, too.

> My point is, if there's something low-level (so it doesn't depend on a lot 
> of Windows-specific knowledge) and relatively small (so it's not a huge 
> time commitment), and if I can find a guide to help me find my way (so I'm 
> not wasting a lot of time getting oriented), then there's a good chance 
> that I could manage to find enough time to help out.  After that, there's 
> always a possibility I'd stick around and move on to another area, but the 
> other projects calling me would probably demand my attention instead.

I went into the Winsock stuff because I needed to. It wasn't easy, but
turned out to be pretty isolated. I still have no clue what happens in
other areas of wine, and I may never have it.

> Now, if nobody has the time to help be get started, so be it.  I'll have to 
> give up on this notion and go work on my other projects instead.  But if 
> there is something sufficiently low-level and constrained, I might be able 
> to help with some code that might bore some people.  But without a guide 
> volunteering to help me get started, I'm not likely to make the effort...

If I hadn't needed to delve into wine, I would probably have said the
same. I think everybody agrees that getting started with wine is more
difficult than with most other open source projects (I reckon Mozilla is
not the easiest either :-). Getting started with the kernel is IMO much
easier, in particular because the net is full of resources on that. 
(Unless you want to do VM, of course :-)

> I haven't told you that before.  I said that the BSD license is more free 
> than the GPL, which is proprietary and restrictive.  I understand why many 
> developers don't want commercial interests taking advantage like that.  
> Personally, I don't want my code taken advantage of that way, either.  So, 
> I've not been inclined to release any of my code under the BSD license.  
> However, for well-established projects, it's clear that BSD licensing can 
> benefit the project, despite the unfairness of companies taking the code.

Sorry that I put the wrong words in your mouth. It appears we are
eventually getting closer.
 
> Some people don't mind being taken advantage of.  I don't really understand 
> why, but they simply don't.

If I estimate how many hours of his lifetime e.g. Alexandre has invested
into wine, I feel that he has reacted very calmly and considerately to
both Transgaming and the partly unfair criticism on the LGPL switch.

> I'm not saying everyone ought to use BSD licenses, only that they appear to 
> have unexpected benefits.

It depends on a person's general disposition if he or she considers
these benefits or not.

Martin

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