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
Presentation: Fast Eventual Consistency: Inside Corrosion, the Distributed System Powering Fly.io
Somtochi Onyekwere explains the architecture of Corrosion, a distributed system designed for low-latency state replication. She shares how Fly.io transitioned from Consul to a gossip-based SQLite solution to handle global machine data. By discussing CRDTs, the SWIM protocol, and QUIC, she shares how to build resilient systems that prioritize speed while managing the complexities of CAP theorem.
By Somtochi OnyekwereMini book: The InfoQ Trends Reports 2025 eMag
This special edition of The InfoQ eMag, contains a comprehensive collection of our popular InfoQ Trends Reports from 2025, a year with both evolution and revolution within the landscapes of technology, software development trends. This collection does not just reflect the past year's technological trends. We aspire to use it as a guide for future exploration and innovation.
By InfoQTanStack Releases Framework Agnostic AI Toolkit
Introducing TanStack AI: a revolutionary, framework-agnostic toolkit empowering developers with unparalleled control over their AI stack. This open-source release features a unified interface across multiple providers and ensures type safety with innovative isomorphic tools. Say goodbye to vendor lock-in and hello to freedom in AI development!
By Daniel CurtisWhat Testers Can Do to Ensure Software Security
A secure software development life cycle means baking security into plan, design, build, test, and maintenance, rather than sprinkling it on at the end, Sara Martinez said in her talk Ensuring Software Security. Testers aren’t bug finders but early defenders, building security and quality in from the first sprint. Culture first, automation second, continuous testing and monitoring all the way.
By Ben LindersAWS Previews Route 53 Global Resolver to Decouple DNS from Regional Failures
AWS previews Route 53 Global Resolver, using Anycast to decouple DNS from regional failures. It simplifies hybrid setups with unified public/private resolution, DoH/DoT, and Zero-Trust security.
By Steef-Jan Wiggers
© 2026 Created by Michael Levin.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!
Join Codetown