Re: Open Source license preferences

On Wed, Jul 18, 2018 at 11:25:14AM -0400, LM wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 6:45 PM, Andy Bennett <[email protected]> wrote:
> > It depends on what you want to do with it.
> 
> Personally, I was looking at some of the older versions of programs
> that are now AGPL licensed and trying to compare pros and cons of
> using the latest version versus an older version pre-AGPL.  The older
> version license terms may be more lenient but older versions may have
> more vulnerabilities unless someone else is maintaining it.  Also,
> newer versions of software may have more features.
> 
For AGPL, my understanding (perhaps wrong) is that you need to
publish source, with details of your modifications, when
"publishing" as a web application.  I think most people here
probably don't create web applications.

[...]
> Using GPL is typically not an issue unless you start thinking about
> distribution.  If I just want to share the source with people who can
> build things from source, I don't think it's a real problem.

Indeed.  You can even build non-distributable versions of packages
(e.g. ffmpeg with libfdk_aac)

> if I build a nice program I want to share and I want to package or
> share it with people who may not know how to build it themselves, then
> I have to start dealing with sharing the program source code, patches,
> plus source for all dependencies (plus those patches).  There's a
> system library exception in the GPL that might partially limit the
> source dependencies one needs to share.  Not sure how that would apply
> with a system like Linux from Scratch where everything is already
> built from source.  AGPL seems even more restrictive than GPL
> regarding use/distribution.
> 

For LFS as a project, we avoid the problem - no binaries are
distributed.

[...]
> 
> Was curious about what other users who build applications from source
> did in situations like these.  It's difficult to find forums/mailing
> lists (besides this one) where users actually build their own programs
> from source rather than just using what someone else provides for
> them.

I suspect that most people here do not *distribute* binaries.  With
the possible exception of AGPL, it's only the distribution which
requires you to provide your source.

ĸen
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