[lynx23]

You could say the same thing about LLVM/Clang. Apple and Google only cooperated on that because they really really dont want a restrictive licence like the GPL.

But then again, after a while, Clang is a nice alternative... Which makes me think: Why exactly are you indirectly lobbying for a monopoly? Just because there is a GNU version of something can not mean there shouldnt be any other version. It just can not mean that...

IOW, nobody should tell anyone else they shouldn't exist.

[CJefferson]

The problem with gcc wasn't the GPL, it was the FSF leadership, particularly Stallman.

There were things people wanted to do with a good C++ compiler, like output a high-quality parse tree (which is useful for all kinds of things), which would have been easy to add to gcc, but were explictly forbidden from being merged into gcc under any circumstances.

This was just in case some closed-source person used that parse tree for non-GPL purposes.

This is why the C++ LSP (language server protocol, used in various text editors) used by basically everyone is based on clang, and there still isn't a gcc-based one.

[LightFog]

GPL software needn’t have anything to do with GNU - having alternative projects is healthy for many reasons.

I just think that trying to make a permissive drop-in replacement for software that emphasises the very freedoms that have allowed the creation of the replacement in the first place is unfortunate and short-sighted. It’s a good thing that the authors have every right to do it all the same though.

[josephcsible]

I don't think there should be a monopoly, but I do wish the alternatives would be copyleft too.

[redundantly]

I wonder what the Venn diagram would like for people opposed to uutils and people that support systemd.

[IntelMiner]

This seems like a rather "baiting" response but I'll bite

I think systemd is a useful evolution in the problem of "Linux plumbing"

Even if it ends up being replaced by something else, for better or worse Lennart sat down and tried something. That's better than 99% of the systemd haters who sit and postulate on reddit and phoronix

Conversely replacing GPL tools with more permissively licensed ones just seems like the "time is a flat circle" idiom

We'll use our GPL'd systems to build BSD/MIT/Apache licensed ones where benevolent mega corporations "allow" our contributions. Until they don't

And then we'll begin the cycle all over again trying to liberate ourselves from corporate controlled software