“In 1991, Richard Stallman’s great project, the GNU operating
system, was made whole when Linus Torvalds developed the kernel,
Linux, that it had lacked. The next year, there was a marriage.
Henceforth, Linux, like GNU before it, was to be distributed under
the General Public License (GPL), the legal arrangement that
defines Free Software. Today, GNU/Linux is arguably the most
popular server operating system, and the GPL is the dominant
license for revealed source code software. Yet it is still not
certain that there is safe place for both hearts and minds in the
unfolding world of software development.“Currently, the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which produces
the evolving GPL, is trying to create a version 3 of its license
that is expected to supplant prior versions, including the current
version 2.1. Version 3 will attempt to address two knotty
issues…”