google open phone platform

Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman) raster at openmoko.org
Tue Nov 6 23:26:08 CET 2007


On Tue, 6 Nov 2007 15:28:30 +0100 Attila Csipa <plists at prometheus.org.yu>
babbled:

my main point was - it's good we don't go the extreme "GPL everything - force
anyone who writes anything on/for openmoko to be GPL" path. this is not
freedom for a set of people. i'd say its a large set of people. if we did go
down that road - android would find it trivial to garner a large support base
that we would never be able to reach. with the mix we have - apps being mixed
of gpl, bsd, mit etc. and libraries almost entirely lgpl or bsd and mit, we
keep the door open for these people. it's a good thing.

> On Tuesday 06 November 2007 13:42:24 you wrote:
> > the problem is - if we DIDNT have full freedom (i disagree - license like
> > GPL forcing you to GPL your app because it uses a public published API are
> > not free. they are just someone else's idea of freedom. mine is that i can
> > license my app freely as i please and make decisions on GPL vs BSD or
> > whatever as fits me), then ALL these users would go for something like OHA.
> > you alienated a set of users and developers by being so hard-line. :(
> 
> OK, I don't want to turn this into a licensing debate (again), but as I see
> it it boils down that OpenMoko gives you freedom, it's just that we have (or
> at least I fail to see) no real consensus on what that freedom means (every
> man chooses for himself). I'm no GPL zealot, I can understand both people who 
> agree with it, and those who think it might alienate some users (that was the 
> argument against GPL Qtopia some time ago). Base OpenMoko is, as far as I can 
> see, GPL. The toolkit, LGPL. From what you say, it somehow turns out Android 
> is even more free than OpenMoko as it poses less restrictions on developers 
> (no, I don't agree with that - yet - either, but it does sound that way). 
> It's just OpenMoko who needs to make up it's collective mind about what sort 
> of freedom it wants to provide to it's users AND developers. It is a fine 
> balance of letting someone doing whatever he pleases, and at the same time 
> not having to worry about his (non)contributions to the community, whether it 
> be code or other support. So do we have something more substantial than a gut 
> feeling that GPL (QTopia) is too restrictive, BSD (Android) is too 
> uncontrollable and that OpenMoko is just the right amount/mix of freedom and 
> control, do we just WANT OpenMoko to be the real free thing we were/are 
> waiting for, no matter what the actual background is ? 
> 
> PS. This is a rethorical question, I won't reply with regard to licensing 
> here. You don't have convince ME (if that was the alienating 'you' you were 
> referring to), just consider it in your OWN comprehension of Free software 
> (whatever the project or licence).
> 
> 
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-- 
Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman) <raster at openmoko.org>




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