Re: new food for the contrib/ directory

Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw when adulau(at)conostix(dot)com (Alexandre Dulaunoy) would write:
> On 18 Apr 2002, Doug McNaught wrote:
>
>> Alexandre Dulaunoy <adulau(at)conostix(dot)com> writes:
>>
>> > first comment :
>> >
>> > * a special directory with ./contrib/gpl ?
>>
>> Doesn't really change anything.
>>
>> > second comment :
>> >
>> > I don't really understand your position regarding the GNU General
>> > Public License. The GPL is offering multiple advantages for a big
>> > project and software like PostgreSQL. For example :
>>
>> Not open for discussion. See the FAQ.
>
> I love that type of respond ;-)
>
> Yes, I have read the faq. The 1.2 is not responding why the modified
> Berkeley-style BSD license was choosen. There is only a respond :"because
> is like that..."
X-Mailer: mh-e 6.1; nmh 1.0.4+dev; Emacs 21.4

Different people consider there to be different reasons for the
BSD-style license to be preferable.

Discussion of the matter tends to start up flame wars, and basically
wastes peoples' time.

Those two factors are actually sufficient all by themselves to suggest
that "Because the developers prefer it" is a quite sufficient
response.

- There are likely some people that dislike the GPL because RMS wrote
it; having a discussion about that guarantees a flame war.

- There are likely some people who consider the somewhat "viral"
provisions of the GPL to be a Bad Thing; having a discussion about
that guarantees a flame war.

- There are likely people who prefer the notion that they can, if they
need to, integrate PostgreSQL with their own other code, and not
have any need to conform to the requirements of the GPL.

- There are likely people who prefer not to need to conform to the
requirements of the GPL.

All of these are eminently "flameworthy" topics where different people
legitimately have different positions on their merits. Holding a
discussion guarantees leaping into one or another of the "flames," or
perhaps others I've not thought to mention.

The simplest answer _definitely_ is to say "See the FAQ; it says as
much as needs to be said."

If you want to contribute code to a GPLed database system, you are
entirely free to do so; options include:
- MySQL (maybe, sorta)
- SAP-DB
- GNU SQL
- Aubit 4GL
- McKoi SQL
--
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