---

LinuxNews.com: Community Responds to Stallman’s Linux Today Editorial

[ Thanks to mhead for this link. ]

“Richard M. Stallman (RMS for those new to the community) has
placed himself in the center of the firestorm of controversy
surrounding rival Linux desktops GNOME and KDE.”

“RMS’s piece, titled Stallman on Qt, the GPL, KDE, and GNOME,
posted on Linux Today September 5, caused a furor among developers
and followers of free software issues and a flurry of talkback
activity on several Linux-related Web sites.”

RMS’s editorial maintains that, despite a number of steps
made in the right direction, KDE is still in violation of the GNU
General Public License (GPL) under which KDE’s free software
foundation competitor, GNOME, was developed. This violation,
Stallman says, exists despite the fact that the Qt library, which
was proprietary and is used in KDE, has been re-released as free
software.

“To rectify the situation, Stallman insists that not only do all
the authors of code used in KDE need to make a statement to the
effect that linking their code with Qt was done with their
permission, but “where code was copied from other GPL-covered
programs, their copyright holders need to be asked for forgiveness.
To lead the way, the FSF [free software foundation] hereby grants
this forgiveness for all code that is copyright FSF,” Stallman
wrote.”

Complete
Story

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Developer Insider for top news, trends, & analysis