“Chalk one up for the Gnu General Public License.”
“In a year that has seen the free software community go from
Great White Hope to Wall Street punching bag, two things have kept
the Linux — make that the Gnu/Linux — community from toppling to
the canvas: fresh legs and a strong jaw.”
“The fresh legs have come in the form of triple-digit growth in
the Linux server market, which ballooned 166 percent between the
fourth quarter of 1998 and the fourth quarter of 1999, according to
International Data Corp.”
“The strong jaw, on the other hand, has come in the form of the
Gnu General Public License, or GPL, a stubborn license built by
stubborn people in the days when supporting the free software ethos
was about as sensible as walking into a Oakland Raiders football
game wearing a Denver Broncos jersey. While some claim the GPL
has yet to be hardened by a true legal fracas, recent events have
hinted to the contrary.“