[cstejerean]

> stuck on a derivative of Ubuntu 18.04 [...] as our project was being developed in Python, we were stuck on 3.6

I might be missing something but why do you need to rely on the OS provided Python version? Newer versions that 3.6 should run on older Ubuntu versions. You could have installed newer versions using the deadsnake PPA for example onto 18.04 up until earlier this year (since LTS only has a 5 year support window, and deadsnakes only supports active LTS versions).

[rollcat]

If we had the resources to disentangle the entire Python situation, trust me we would. Unfortunately the web of dependencies for that project was quite intricate, and at one point you just need to swallow the vendor's proprietary libraries that they've built against what they've shipped in the base OS. (L)GPL is good on paper, but the effort to actually make use of the freedom it grants is disproportionate.

(Which is why I'm a firm believer in the suckless philosophy: if the software is too complex to fully understand, source access or even copyleft aren't worth much.)

[mkoubaa]

GPL is burdensome for businesses to comply with, so I would support public funding for drop in replacements for common GPL tools and libraries