Google has just announced that they are adding the Eclipse Public License (EPL) as a license option for Google Code. A special thank you to Chris DiBona and the entire Google Code team making this addition. Google is a good friend of Eclipse and we appreciate their ongoing support of our community.
As Chris mentioned, we at the Foundation had been asking Google to add the EPL but I think more importantly the Eclipse community has been very vocal about wanting the ability to use EPL for their projects on Google Code. This is a great example of how the voice of a community can make a big difference.
Now, I hope people start using Google Code and EPL to start building some very cool open source technology.
August 29, 2008 at 1:07 pm |
I switch my project right away.
August 29, 2008 at 1:31 pm |
I am not sure if I agree with this…there are too many OSS licenses and there is really nothing special about EPL compared to other licenses.
August 29, 2008 at 3:27 pm |
Jacek, Maybe it’s just the circles you run in? I obviously see hundreds of company buildings products and services on and around EPL every day, I see organizations like Symbian making significant investments on the basis of the EPL license. Personally, I don’t think any license is “special’ compared to any other license – but the fact that the EPL is the corner stone of an intellectual property model that 100’s of companies and billions of dollars is built around makes it quite relevant.
– Don
August 29, 2008 at 3:31 pm |
Finally! Now to update some of my projects hosted at Google Code…
August 29, 2008 at 3:43 pm |
I hang around the Apache 2.0 crowd. *grin*
It’s not a big deal, but as someone who integrates 7-8 different libs on my project, it’s always a headache. As far as I see there are really just two types (viral GPL and non-viral). Everything else is just details.
August 29, 2008 at 3:51 pm |
Some times people need dimmer switches in place of off-on switches…
btw – my “circles” comment was my typical poor english skills, not meant as a dig. I was trying to convey that sometimes there are whole huge worlds that we don’t see because of where we are. For example, when I started at Eclipse all I could see was it’s place in enterprise software (because I’m an enterprise software guy). To this day I still can’t wrap my head around how much it’s used in embedded and mobile spaces – for example.
– Don
August 29, 2008 at 7:49 pm |
Jacek,
I know a lot of people think license proliferation is a problem and I appreciate it is a headache for someone like yourself. However, imho I think we will always be in a world of multiple licenses. We were need to focus on is educating people on the differences between the licenses.