I’m truly curious, is this because it rules out distributing a statically linked binary? I may be misremembering, but I thought LGPL is completely fine for commercial apps if you’re just looking against the LGPL’d code.
LGPL stipulates that you should be able to link against your own version of the LGPL library you're integrating, that's to say a user should be able to run an app with their own version of the LGPL library if they want to.
For some app distribution channels, like with iOS apps, that can be difficult to impossible to actually implement given the control Apple has over app packaging and distribution.
Otherwise, you should be able to distribute a commercial non-LGPL app that uses an LGPL library just fine as long as you meet that stipulation.
As others have pointed out, WxWidgets ships with a modified LGPL license that makes this point moot, anyway, and makes it easier for commercial apps to comply with the modified license compared to the bare LGPL as they are free to statically link WxWidgets and distribute apps in compliance with the modified license.
Would it be good enough on platforms like iOS to dynamically link, include the DLLs in the bundle, and tell people they are on their own if they want to switch them out?
>> Would it be good enough on platforms like iOS to dynamically link, include the DLLs in the bundle, and tell people they are on their own if they want to switch them out?
You also have to offer them source code, or just ship it along with.
I meant source code of the library part. Correct, your app can stay closed. You still have to comply with the redistribution requirements of the LGPL code.
For some app distribution channels, like with iOS apps, that can be difficult to impossible to actually implement given the control Apple has over app packaging and distribution.
Otherwise, you should be able to distribute a commercial non-LGPL app that uses an LGPL library just fine as long as you meet that stipulation.
As others have pointed out, WxWidgets ships with a modified LGPL license that makes this point moot, anyway, and makes it easier for commercial apps to comply with the modified license compared to the bare LGPL as they are free to statically link WxWidgets and distribute apps in compliance with the modified license.