[Freeciv-Dev] Re: KCiv?

[Trent Piepho <xyzzy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 9 Aug 2001, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> It comes down to this paragraph of the GPL:
> 
>    [ Source for all components, except those that are normally part of
>     operating system]
> 
> Since Motif is "normally distributed" with most commercial versions of
> Unix, it was permissible to distribute GPL software that used Motif.
> 
> But then Linux came along, and it doesn't pay licensing fees to OSF for
> the use of Motif, so it doesn't normally *have* Motif.  Therefore it
> raised some debate about the meaning of this paragraph in regards to
> Motif programs on Linux, and on Unix in general.

The real problem, is that this paragraph is out of date.  Back when your
hardware, OS, compiler, C library, windowing system, etc. all came packaged
from the same vendor, it was pretty clear what should get the "OS exception"
and what shouldn't.  Now it's really not clear at all.  You have OSes that
don't even come with a compiler, you need to buy one from a seperate company. 
You have libraries like gtk+ and Qt that have functions that were normally
part of the operating system components.

Mandrake included Qt since it was created, so does that make qt an OS
component?  Redhat didn't, so does that make it not an OS component?  Do you
have to look at the market share of all operating systems, and if over 50% of
the market includes qt, it gets the "OS component" exception?  Do you apply
that same reasoning to motif and POSIX libraries that don't come with windows? 
I don't think any of those methods make any sense.

It seems that the FSF decided that Qt didn't get the exception.  But you have
things like xmcd that uses Motif, LyX that uses XForms, a number of programs
ported to windows 3.11 when it didn't come with winsock, a GAIM plugin that
uses IBM's ViaVoice, OpenGL programs from when it was IrisGL and SGI only, and
so on.  I really don't see any way you not give the "OS exception" to Qt, and
yet give it to these applications with non open source libraries, without
being somewhat hypocritical.