Kernel developers' position on GPLv3

[Stephan Peijnik]

On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 08:44:06PM +0200, Stefano Spinucci wrote:
> Then, you think that the "Balkanisation menace" is only smelly FUD,
> and that GPLv2 and v3 can cohesist without problems ???

Yes, that should impose a true problem.

> I'm not an expert, but we can have a GNU toolchain v3 and a Kernel v2 ???

A GNU toolchain (in terms of gcc, binutils, etc) being licenced under the GPLv3
and Linux under GPLv2 should be perfectly possible. I'm no expert on the inner
workings of Linux and how what is linked against it, but building GPLv2 software
with a GPLv3 toolchain is not a problem. Furthermore building proprietary software
with the GNU toolchain shouldn't or isn't a problem either. If it was a problem
some (or maybe a lot of) software which is not licensed under the terms of the
GPL and rather an incompatible license couldn't be built with gcc from a legal
point of view, which isn't the case.

Regards,

Stephan