LWN: Richard Stallman: Caution: Motif is still not free software | Linux Today

LWN: Richard Stallman: Caution: Motif is still not free software

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Jun 5, 2000

A couple of weeks ago, the Open Group changed the license
of Motif, inviting free software developers to use it. However, the
new Motif license does not fit either the definition of free
software, or the looser definition of open source
software.

“Their announcement says they have released Motif to “the open
source community”, but this is true only in an unnatural
interpretation of the words. They have not made Motif available
within the free software community; instead, they have invited the
people in the free software community to leave the community by
using Motif.”

“I’ve written to the Open Group about this, asking them to
change the license. We can hope they will, but we can’t assume it.
In the present circumstances, we have to treat Motif the same way
we treated it before: not available for us. Motif still cannot be
part of a free operating system, and combining or linking someone
else’s GPL-covered code with Motif is still a violation of the GPL
except in very special circumstances.”

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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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