Codetown
Codetown ::: a software developer's community
Some thoughts on licensing from Google's Chris DiBona
Chris DiBona is the director of open source at Google, and he's been taking a big part in the open source and Free software ecosystem for a very long time--not least in his role with Google's Summer of Code. He recently posted on Twitter what he calls "a little rant" about software licensing -- well worth reading the whole (short!) thing.
Upshot: Be cautious and humble in selecting a software license; ones that have been around and used happily by others have advantages, including familiarity to users. This applies to open source licenses, but maybe not so surprisingly at least as much to licenses that offer some of the qualities of open source (availability of code) without all the freedoms that FOSS developers have come to expect.
New licenses, especially ones with complex restrictions on use, can make users shy away from them.
Comment
Happy 10th year, JCertif!
Notes
Welcome to Codetown!
Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.
Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.
Looking for Jobs or Staff?
Check out the Codetown Jobs group.
InfoQ Reading List
PyPI Supply Chain Attack Compromises LiteLLM, Enabling the Exfiltration of Sensitive Information
Discovered by FutureSearch researcher Callum McMahon, a supply chain attack against LiteLLM on PyPI resulted in over 40 thousand downloads of a compromised version that installed a malicious payload capable of harvesting and exfiltrating sensitive information. LiteLLM is downloaded roughly 3 million times per day.
By Sergio De SimoneAgentic AI Patterns Reinforce Engineering Discipline
Paul Duvall recently discussed his library of engineering patterns for AI assisted development and practices that ground high quality delivery. Related discussions from Paul Stack and Gergely Orosz highlight a shift toward remixing and specification driven development.
By Rafiq GemmailPresentation: Hidden Decisions You Don’t Know You’re Making
Dan Fike and Shawna Martell explain how "hidden decisions" silently shape software architecture and engineering culture. By examining the invisible defaults behind CI/CD bottlenecks, platform complexity, and misaligned metrics, they share frameworks for leading with intentionality. Learn to identify the "decision behind the decision" to better incentivize high-performing teams and careers.
By Shawna Martell, Dan FikeKubernetes Autoscaling Demands New Observability Focus Beyond Vendor Tooling
As adoption of Kubernetes autoscalers like Karpenter accelerates, a new set of platform-agnostic observability practices is emerging, shifting focus from traditional infrastructure metrics to deeper insights into provisioning behavior, scheduling latency, and cost efficiency.
By Craig RisiTanStack Start Introduces Import Protection to Enforce Server and Client Boundaries
TanStack Start has introduced a import protection, which aims to prevent server and client code from being mixed in full-stack React applications. This Vite plugin automatically checks imports during development and build processes. It blocks harmful imports by file naming conventions or explicit markers, enhancing security and reducing bugs without requiring additional developer input.
By Daniel Curtis
© 2026 Created by Michael Levin.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!
Join Codetown