[TriLUG] borland

Jonathan Magid jem at metalab.unc.edu
Thu Jan 17 12:26:48 EST 2002


On 17 Jan 2002, Andrew C. Oliver wrote:

> I will continue using Borland products in the future where there are no
> adequate *free* alternatives.  (BTW I prefer non-GPL *free* where
> possible since GPL actually imposes more restrictions on me then other
> *free* licenses -- like making non *free* stuff with it ;-D  *puts on
> his flame proof jacket*)

Urgh. I know I know better than to enter a possible GPL/BSD license
flamewar. But I just can't help myself.

I don't want to argue whether either the GPL or BSD/X11/Apache licenses
are "truely free", as that this flamewar is the "Serbonian bog" into which
whole armies of hackers have fallen into without a trace.

But I do want to correct the impression that your statement might leave,
which is that you can't write non-GPL (or even proprietary) software with
GPL'd tools. You can write proprietary software with gcc/g++ or perl or
with flex/bison, etc. Pretty much any GPL'd software tool is usable on any
sort of project. The GPL only prevents you from distributing code under
that license as proprietary code, or *including that code in your own
proprietary software*.

cheers,
jem.

-- 
Global Village Idiot
Email: jem at sunsite^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmetalab^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hibiblio.org
http://ibiblio.org/jem/




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