Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Maybe OT, reprap build started

> There is a lot of debate over who invented open source. Some say it was
> Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU project.

Open source and public domain code has been around pretty much since the
dawn of computing. The GNU GPL is only one of a whole raft of open
source licenses.

> You start with some commercial- or near-commercial-quality software, and
> publish it under GPL. You make it accessible. Independent programmers start
> improving it and sending you their improvements. Most of it is trash, but
> there are gems in the garbage. You cherry-pick these and add them to your
> private code base, integrating them in a consistent user interface. When you
> have a truly outstanding product you publish a Major Revision. Only now it
> is not accessible.

Nope, you can't do this without the permission of the authors of every
bit of contributed code that you add to your private code base. GPL is
'viral'. Once a piece of code is covered by the GPL, all additions are
automatically covered by the same license. You can't legally use any
part of that code in a closed source application. Dual licenses are
possible with GPL. Effectively you have to maintain two code bases, one
GPL and one closed. The closed source code base cannot contain any
contributed code without the contributor's permission. Alternatively you
can use someting like the MIT license that allows any use of the code.
Of course someone could take the MIT licensed code and GPL it. Then any
changes to the GPLed version could not be ported to the MIT code base.

There is no great conspiracy with people hiding GPL code. The answer is
much more prosaic. Making programs easy to build and install is hard
work and time consuming. Programmers would much prefer to add features
or tweak the functionality of the code than grind away at the often
frustrating task of making everything easy to use. Let's face it, if you
aren't being paid to do the work you are much more likely to concentrate
on the fun part. The difference with commercial programs is that they
HAVE to be easy to use or no-one will buy them.

Les