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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—If anyone out there still thinks that the main Linux kernel might change to the GNU GPLv3 (GNU General Public License Version 3) anytime soon, you can forget about it.
At the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit at the Googleplex, five of the leading Linux kernel developers said that they couldnt see anything like a good enough reason to switch to the forthcoming free software license.
Like Linus Torvalds, Linuxs founder and guiding light, the developers still dislike the GPLv3.
During a panel on kernel development, when asked about the new GPLv3, due out on June 29, Greg Kroah-Hartman said that he had not changed his opinion that he thinks the “GPLv3 is bad.”
To justify switching Linux to the GPLv3 it “would have to be significantly better, and its not,” said Kroah-Hartman. Ted Tso added that, “pragmatically speaking, its too much trouble for not enough advantage.”
Tso continued, “I think [the latest draft is] much better. I may use it in my userspace community programs. The Free Software Foundation did listen. This version is much better. Props to Eben Moglen and company for making it better, but it still has problems and its not that much better than the GPLv2. Moving the current Linux kernel would take at least six months of arguing and work and its just not worth it.”