From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,3e26dfa741e64e5f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!newspeer2.se.telia.net!se.telia.net!masternews.telia.net.!newsc.telia.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <4329F15C.5040409@nowhere.nil> From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn_Persson?= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6-1.1.fc4 (X11/20050720) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is now available References: <432919be$0$10539$4d4eb98e@read.news.fr.uu.net> In-Reply-To: <432919be$0$10539$4d4eb98e@read.news.fr.uu.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:10:37 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 217.209.116.179 X-Complaints-To: abuse@telia.com X-Trace: newsc.telia.net 1126822237 217.209.116.179 (Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:10:37 CEST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:10:37 CEST Organization: Telia Internet Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:4762 Date: 2005-09-15T22:10:37+00:00 List-Id: I would like to see some kind of official statement from AdaCore on the reasoning behind this license change. Personally I think it's a big mistake, but I would like to know why AdaCore think it's a good idea. I also very much want to know whether the license will be changed in the GCC source tree. I'm very puzzled about the requirement for registration. There's not a word of explanation on the page that I can see. Why would I have to log in to download free software? It's not like I need yet another website account with yet another password to remember. Finally, there's one thing that needs to get set straight: Jamie Ayre wrote: > AdaCore is pleased to announce the release of the GNAT GPL 2005 Edition > to provide Free Software developers, that is developers that distribute > their work under the GPL (GNU General Public License), the latest and > most advanced Ada 2005 software development environment. When AdaCore explain free software on their website they typically link to the FSF site, but in this sentence they're not using the FSF's definition of free software. Free software is not at all synonymous to GPL. This page lists many other free software licenses, including many that are incompatible with the GPL: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/index_html None of those licenses (with reservation for possible rare exceptions) could be used on a program linked to the runtime library of the GNAT GPL 2005 Edition. Not even those that are listed as GPL-compatible, because that's a one-way compatibility. The GNAT GPL 2005 Edition is not for free software developers. It's for GPL-only developers. You can't even compile LGPL or GMGPL software (for distribution) with it. -- Bj�rn Persson PGP key A88682FD omb jor ers @sv ge. r o.b n.p son eri nu