The Free Software Foundation should focus on GPL modernization, instead of trying to answer “unasked questions of software freedom,” an interesting eWEEK editorial by Jason Brooks suggests. With only one draft to go, the authors of GPLv3 should put adoptability first, given the license's potential to unite open source communities, writes Brooks.

For example, Sun has announced a GPLv3 OpenSolaris release. If Linux also adopted GPLv3, developers would be able to intermingle code from both projects, Brooks adds.

Brooks notes that Linus Torvalds has warmed to recent GPLv3 drafts, an important litmus test for the license's ultimate viability. The essayist applauds the FSF's decision to spin web application loophole closures into a separate “Affero” GPL. However, he suggests that anti “Tivo-isation” language — though improved — might still be too tangled to hold up.

Brooks concludes that by encouraging the Free Software Foundation to be mindful of the “big picture” — the GPLv3's potential to unify the open source landscape — if widely adopted.

Brooks's interesting essay can be found on our sister site, eWEEK.com, here.

 
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