Re: [libreoffice-marketing] LO vs AOO : GPL/LGPL vs ASL licences

On 12/31/2012 02:40 PM, Immanuel Giulea wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> In the marketing materials that I am writing covering LO vs AOO, I was
> wondering if it would be relevant to go into an explanation about why the
> GPL/LGPL licence used by LO was superior to the ASL as a "true open source".
>
> I found this great document that explains the three "most common" licences:
> ASL, GPL and LGPL (MPL is not included) (1, 2)
>
> Any thoughts on how relevant it would be to extract some of the information
> and apply it on the materials?
>
>
> Cheers and Happy New Year
>
> Immanuel
>
> (1)
> http://www.openlogic.com/Portals/172122/docs/understanding-the-three-most-common-open-source-licenses.pdf
> (2) http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/10518967
Reviewing the Openlogic information I think we should compare the 
GPL/LGPL with the typical proprietary license not the ASL. The 
differences between the ASL and GPL/LGPL while important are, IMHO, more 
a matter of degree than kind. Both are intended to be user friendly and 
allow user modifications and access to the source code that the typical 
proprietary license does not allow.

Comparing GPL/LGPL to a proprietary license

1. GPL gives users complete access to the source code. This allows users 
to compile the code for another platform, modify the code, or extend the 
code as they see fit. Proprietary code does not allow any access to the 
source code.

2. GPL license implies the unrestricted installation of the program 
without cost to the user. Proprietary licenses have varying restrictions 
on the number of allowed installations.

3. FOSS projects have free, unlimited user support from dedicated users 
with some form of question and answer interaction between the user and 
responder(s). Some projects also have commercial support available. 
Proprietary software often does not have free user forums or user lists 
where anyone can ask a question and get answers. Typically, proprietary 
software offers knowledge base articles and paid support.

4. Most GPL licensed projects promote contributions from all interested 
individuals. This community, often worldwide, brings a broader 
perspective to the project even if the actual code development is done 
by relatively few individuals. Proprietary projects can have problems 
with gaining a sufficiently broad perspective because the developers are 
more isolated from the end users during development.

--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com


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