[Gambas-user] RE:Re: [Gambas-user] Licence program writed in Gambas.

Jason Curl j.m.curl at ...17...
Tue Jun 28 20:31:27 CEST 2005


Hello Daniel,

<putting on fireproof jacket>

Proprietary software has its place along with Free Software and both have
their advantages and disadvantages. As passionate as this topic is, there
are some things you've said that aren't quite right and much is open to
interpretation. I'm not going to mention them here (some comments are
below), but just highlight the important points related to Gambas:

GPL'd software doesn't restrict your right to earn money, but you must offer
your software, and derivative works must also be GPL'd. There are problems
with this also, leading to the LGPL and driving other licenses such as the
MIT, Berkely license (and many others on the Internet also, such as the
Boost license for C++ libraries). New works doesn't appear to have the need
to be GPL'd (but if you modify Gambas yourself to include new functions, you
must then provide your new software as GPL'd if you want to distribute it)

Trolltech on their site state specifically if you want to develop software
that is not for GPL, you must pay for the commercial license *before*
development. MySQL have something similar also. It gives them the advantage
that there is a larger developer base that increases the chances a company
might use their software in a proprietary manner (Trolltech state this on
their site).

There is so much information on the Internet about this topic, it really
doesn't make much sense to discuss the advantages/disadvantages here as it
will be inevitably biased. You'll learn about them as you need to apply the
different licenses. You also have the freedom to choose software based on
the license as Daniel has already pointed out.

</putting on fireproof jacket>

I don't want to discourage free software, I'd also like to promote it. I
like the idea of the GPL as if I write software and somebody else uses it
then I would also expect it to be free software (why should they get the
benefit of my hard work?)


-----Original Message-----
From: gambas-user-admin at lists.sourceforge.net
[mailto:gambas-user-admin at lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of Daniel Campos
Sent: Sunday, 26 June 2005 23:47
To: gambas-user at lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Gambas-user] RE:Re: [Gambas-user] Licence program writed in
Gambas.

Hi:

Note that Gambas is just an interpreter, so your Gambas code can have 
any licence, you have not to contribute
to the community, you have not to licence your program under GPL, if you 
want.

But if you use the gb.qt component (and I think the gb.db.mysql 
component), you are using functions from
a GPL library, so your program must be free software, or you must pay to 
Trolltech or MySQL.org if you want to write propietary software.

Apart from this, I do not know where's the problem: the free software 
concept (and specially the GPL licence), offers you freedom to earn 
money with your project (may be selling CDs, packaging for different 
distributions, giving support, writting and selling documentation, 
receiving money for writting an application...), but anyone has the 
freedom to copy, modify it and may be earn money with it  too :-) . 
Without the second point, there's not freedom at all: You say  "free 
software means you can do anything you want with the software, even 
selling it...". OK,  you can, but if you were the only person allowed to 
modify the code, or sell it, there's no freedom at all: Your program 
would be just propietary software (and yes, you are allowed to do it 
with Gambas).

At the end, the free software code is just helping, it does not restrict 
you nor any programmer: by now, you have here a free Basic interpreter, 
you can write propietary software with it, you can install a complete 
operating system (GNU/Linux, FreeBSD) and develope any application with 
it, or look for resources and documentation in the internet using 
Mozilla, or talk about the GPL using the Evolution or Thunderbird mail 
clients. You can offer to your costumers a complete operating system 
with your application, OpenOffice, The Gimp, Chat programs, two big 
graphical Desktops, Database applications, and more, all for FREE (as in 
beer). And you can use all LGPL and probably MIT licenced programs and 
libraries for FREE (as in beer).

But if you just want to use the QT libraries for FREE (as in beer), to 
write a propietary program, you can't do it. They've licenced the 
library as GPL, and they offer the possibility of writting propietary 
programs if you just pay some money back for their effort (I think this 
is right, this is this is respectable).

Can you compare this with the propietary world?
Where's the help in propietary software?
Can you modify VB if you find a bug that breaks your program?
Can you have VB for free?
Can you call MS for free if you have a problem?
What will you do if VB6 stops working in future Win versions?

** Much "free" software has little support, and usually the answer is
to "fix it yourself". This is prohibitive to most people. Most systems
are so complex, it's difficult to know where to start (e.g. Cygwin).
There's no defined support contract for free software generally, and
this goes because there is no payment. So Free Software isn't also
without it's problems. Not everybody is a highly skilled programmer.

You have to pay it all (operating system, RAD environment, updates) and 
after that, read the EULA, you have not bought anything: you have not 
the right to use it as you want.

Can you use MS propietary soft to write a program for a GNU/Linux 
costumer? No, they are modifying licences and code so wine is detected 
and prohibited.

Can you write your own drivers for free for hardware developed by your 
company? No, you have to pay the Driver SDK (and it is not cheap). 

** Actually it's about the cost of postage and handling if you buy the
latest. WinNT4 might be a different matter though.

Can you freely use the propietary file formats for MS? No, they're 
adding hardware  protections to detect and filter "author rights".

** This is called a "secure" platform and can be a method to restrict
what software is usable. I can see real legitimate uses even for Linux
especially in embedded systems. Of course it can be used to their
advantage too and I see your point.

Will you be able to be a programmer in the future if you do not pay a 
expensive MS programming licence? NO, it is sure, it is a BIG business.

** Depends on what expensive means. If it's a small investment for a
large return for creating a monopoly, then it might be considered
cheap. This is how businesses operate, most of it is gain from investment
and risk analysis.

These are restrictions.

Regards,

Daniel Campos






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