'GPL encumbrance problems'

[Tim]

On Wed, 2006-01-18 at 21:10 -0800, jdow wrote:
> Rightly or wrongly I perceive two things, it is impossible for me to
> write code for a GPLed system in such a way as to protect my own work
> from the accidental side effects of the GPLed system's licenses.

Just from a point of curiosity, is it not possible to create Linux
software that doesn't depend on other things?  Do all compilers
"include" things that might contaminate you?  And surely that problem
might exist on other platforms, too.

Going by some of what I've seen discussed, it does rather look like
Linux is set up to be something that's not ripe for exploitation.  It
exists, but isn't going to be a cash cow.  It doesn't owe anybody else a
living.  And like many things in life, that can be a good thing.
There's plenty of other things that can be exploited, I wouldn't like it
so that the only way to use a computer, whichever one you went for, had
to mean spending lots of money on it.

I certainly appreciate the very different status that Linux has compared
to other computer systems, and not just because of the (low) cost of it.
I like something that's not under the thumb of a capitalist.

-- 
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