Lit Review: GPL & Open Source for Business
This review was for two documents: Using GPL’d Software In-House and Open Source Case for Business: Advocacy.
The Good:
- The GPL doesn’t govern USING the licensed software, only copying, modifying, and distributing
- Open-source can be hugely beneficial to businesses of all sizes
- Open source can be found everywhere making up vital internet infrastructure
The Bad:
- The first document was too short to really cover
- The OSI Document still mentions Netscape…
- …and “Perl” is behind most “live” content, not PHP, Python…
The Questions:
- What’s the legality of distributing GPL-licensed, unmodified, code as part of a proprietary application?
- What can be done to calm companies’ fears about using FOSS?
- What kind of reliability test was done? Stats and data?
The Ratings: