Re:Rewriting essential Linux packages in Rust
by nine_k on Sunday March 09, 2025 @04:15PM
(#43313267)
Libraries are normally released under LGPL, which allows the use inside your differently licensed code.
A ton of commercial services and products somehow use Linux, the poster child of GPL2, while also running tons of their proprietary code. Python is GPL, and it's all over the place in the computing world.
If you just want to take some code someone else wrote, for free, and alter and meld it into your commercial product, well, yes, GPL does not allow that. I don't think it's a huge impediment for legitimate use.
I'd say that all open-source approaches have their own use cases. Certain things are easier to release under BSD / MIT license, some makes sense to release under GPL, some have to resort to AGPL, to the detriment of commercial adoption. A dual restrictive open-source + paid commercial license can be the best in many cases.
A ton of commercial services and products somehow use Linux, the poster child of GPL2, while also running tons of their proprietary code. Python is GPL, and it's all over the place in the computing world.
If you just want to take some code someone else wrote, for free, and alter and meld it into your commercial product, well, yes, GPL does not allow that. I don't think it's a huge impediment for legitimate use.
I'd say that all open-source approaches have their own use cases. Certain things are easier to release under BSD / MIT license, some makes sense to release under GPL, some have to resort to AGPL, to the detriment of commercial adoption. A dual restrictive open-source + paid commercial license can be the best in many cases.