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On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 11:00:12AM -0700, Matt.Wilkie wrote: |
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> Hi Daniel, |
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> |
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> Just ran into Gentoo because of your Developer Works article. |
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> Nice clean site and I like the idea of Ports on linux. I don't |
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> have personal experience with BSD but a friend who hosts |
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> websites raves about it, specifically because of the ports |
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> approach. |
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> |
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> Anyway, I like what I see so far but couldn't find a any |
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> reference to what license model you work under on your website. |
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|
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I need to make this more clear as well as add a FAQ entry to answer this |
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question. All of our work is released under the GPL by default. |
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|
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However, Gentoo Linux proper contains a number of packages with non-GPL |
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licences. But anything *we* do is GPL-based. |
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|
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The only exceptions to this rule are special projects for paying clients, in |
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which case we work out an arrangement that is acceptable for both parties. In |
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these situations, we generally recommend that a good portion of the project (as |
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much as possible) is released under the GPL and incorporated into our public |
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CVS tree, and any proprietary parts are stored on a company's internal cvs |
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server. |
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|
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This helps both the free software community and our partners. First, our |
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public CVS tree benefits from new improvements. Second, the company benefits |
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from public maintenance and testing of their extensions to Gentoo Linux. And |
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third, even though part of the project remains proprietary, at least the |
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company is using free software as a base for its project rather than some |
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proprietary OS. This is at least a partial win for free software, and I'd |
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rather have a partial win than no win at all. |
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|
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That being said, we really do prefer the GPL and think that this license offers |
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the greatest benefit to the community _as well as_ commercial enterprise. |
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Otherwise we wouldn't be using it ourselves. |
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|
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Best Regards, |
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|
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-- |
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Daniel Robbins <drobbins@g.o> |
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President/CEO http://www.gentoo.org |
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Gentoo Technologies, Inc. |