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It is supported by many that the AGPL license for network services which run in a cloud brings back the fairness provision that the original GPL intended and returns the freedom that FLOSS promises to all users and developers. But does the APGL license really provide all that?
The GNU General Public License (GPL) is often described as "Copyleft" because it turns traditional copyright on its head to make code freer than traditional proprietary copyright licenses. Taking that a step further, some developers are embracing the Unlicense, a license that "disclaims" copyright interest in a piece of code altogether.
If businesses want to run Microsoft Office's new web-based apps on Linux machines, they'll need a buy a full Office license for each user - even though the suite's desktop apps don't run on Linux.
"A few months ago, SGI released a new version of the SGI Free License B. With that change, a lot of code used to provide 3D graphics on GNU/Linux systems was now free software.
Over the last decade, free software developers have been repeatedly tempted by development tools that offer the ability to build free software more efficiently or powerfully.
«Clipperz and Richard Stallman recently launched a joint call for action to bring freedom and privacy to web applications. [...] Clipperz and RMS urge web developers to adopt the new AGPL license and build their applications using a 'zero-knowledge architecture,' a framework for web services that has been derived from Clipperz online password manager.
Since early this decade, Microsoft has been promoting their software framework, the .NET platform and its associated libraries. Now up to incarnation v3.5, Windows developers worldwide have rejoiced at the framework source code finally being made available. Yet, does this reflect any trend towards open source by the Redmond giant? How generous is the license and what does it mean?
Version 2 of the General Public License ("GPL 2") has led a long and prosperous life in the software community since its release in 1991. It has been embraced by software developers and used more than any other free software license.
