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this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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I have not been given a specific example of a scenario involving uutils, I have only been told about scenarios for unrelated and very different projects, and the difference between the situations is significant enough that you can't simply point to them and declare that your point has automatically been proven. In fact, I would argue that uutils is such a different case that it is implausible that such a scenario could occur and become a big problem.
And yes, people stopping complaining about work being done on a project they are not involved with in every single post discussing it would be a perfectly fine outcome for me. But if they are not going to do that, then I would also be happy with getting my questions answered because I believe that they are relevant.
I think the biggest point you may be missing here is if you start re-writing GNU/Linux (which is what uutils is the first step in doing) with an MIT license, you start making reasons for commercial entities that contribute back out of obligation to stop supporting upstream free software. This is a no brainer to me. As to whether or not anybody should stop writing uutils, the answer is **obviously not. ** The license, however, is free game for scrutiny
Okay, but is this group trying to re-write all of the GPL software in the Linux ecosystem with an MIT license? I ask this because I think that the words "first step" are doing a lot of the lifting in your argument.
And just to be clear, my objection is not to people disagreeing with the license; in fact, as I have said elsewhere--though I hardly expect you to have read all of my comments here!--I think that the underlying criticism is actually reasonable, I just also think that the extent of the concern is exaggerated in practice in this specific case (which is why I keep trying to pin people down on specifics rather than generalities). Again, my objection is that people feel the need to post the same inane comments with varying degree of toxicity (such referring to them as using a "cuck" license) complaining about it in every single post.
Yeah I don't toxicity either it helps nobody. But if you would allow me to be a little vulgar, here's a quick attempt to aggregate why the legal side of GPL has been important:
https://claude.ai/share/ad5124a7-ddad-4ec8-8b4f-d270242dcf56
Search engines take a bunch of time and I gotta keep parenting.
Also* it took decades for GNU/Linux to accrue enough momentum to get to a point where it is today: a commercially viable cloud powerhouse. It didn't get here by letting anybody/everybody just do what they want with the software. These small flights accumulate to protect an entire ecosystem of beloved software, which is why many of us feel the need to use the only voice we have. I don't think for sure that anybody wants to replace Linux with a permission version but the benefits for greedy corporations to see that happen is pretty clear. Especially when people are willing to start doing that for free