Paul Krill
Editor at Large

GPLv3 shunned, survey says

news
Sep 24, 20072 mins

Just 6 percent of developers working with open-source software have adopted the new GNU General Public License version 3, an Evans Data survey has found.

Also, two-thirds say they will not adopt GPLv3 anytime in the next year, and 43 percent say they will never implement the new license. Almost twice as many would be less likely to join a project that uses GPLv3 than would be likely to join, Evans said in a statement released on Monday.

“GPLv3 is controversial because it imposes restrictions on what you can do with programs implemented under this license,” said John Andrews, president and CEO of Evans Data in the statement. “Developers are confused and divided about those restrictions, with fairly equal numbers agreeing with the restrictions, disagreeing with them, or thinking they will be unenforceable.”

Evans also noted GPLv3 has a clause forbidding licensees from bringing patent infringement lawsuits, directly attacking the recent Novell-Microsoft alliance. Seventy percent of the developers in the survey felt the alliance has been bad for the open-source community, according to Evans.

GPLv3 was released by the Free Software Foundation on June 29. The foundation cited improvements like copyright technology to provide uniformity in different jurisdictions and the ability to modify software on PCs or in household appliances.

Other findings in the survey of more than 380 open-source developers included:

* Lack of skills in an organization was called the greatest barrier to migration from Windows to Linux.

* The Apache Foundation was cited as the organization having the best open-source offerings.

* A third of open-source developers are building desktop applications.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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