Posted by Stephen Gordon on 09/28/05 15:06

Erwin Moller wrote:
>
> Free as in 'Freedom', not as in 'free beer'.
> (c) Richard Stallman
>
> Yes, it is true that mySQL can be downloaded and used for 0 dollars.
> That is the 'free beer' part.
> But the licences of mySQL, to which you agreed by using it, are not GPL.
>
> If this doesn't make any sense to you, please read on here:
> www.gnu.org
> or
> www.fsf.org (Free Software Foundation)
>
>
> That is why I said: 'more free'. Postgresql is completely free to use,
> modify, even sell it if you manage. MySQL has a less free licence.
>
> Regards,
> Erwin Moller

Erm no. Mysql licensing is more restrictive than Postgresql but your
reasoning is completely off.

The reason MySQLs' is more restrictive is that to use the software for
free you are licensed it AS GPL (not LGPL) which means you have to
release source if you redistribute bundled with MySQL etc. In this case
GPL is more restrictive than the Postgre license which essentially says
you can do whatever the hell you like with it regardless of whether you
release source code or not.

Cheers,

Steve

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