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
Chrome 144 Ships Temporal API: Advancing JavaScript Date/Time Standardisation
Chrome 144 introduces the groundbreaking Temporal API, revolutionizing date and time management in JavaScript. As a modern alternative to the criticized Date object, Temporal resolves parsing ambiguities, time zone complexities, and mutable arithmetic. With distinct types and built-in support, it empowers developers to handle dates seamlessly, though adoption varies across browsers.
By Daniel CurtisGlassFish 8.0 Delivers Compatibility with Jakarta EE 11, Enhanced Security and Improved Data Access
After 15 milestone releases, the Eclipse Foundation has released version 8.0 of GlassFish featuring support for virtual threads; enhanced application security; and improved data access. GlassFish 8.0 is a compatible implementation of Jakarta EE 11. Ondro Mihályi, Java Champion and co-founder of OmniFish, spoke to InfoQ about GlassFish 8.0.
By Michael RedlichPresentation: The Ideal Micro-Frontends Platform
Luca Mezzalira shares a decision framework for micro-frontends, covering composition, routing, and communication. He explains how to structure "stream-aligned" teams and use a "tiger team" for foundational architecture. He also discusses the sociotechnical benefits of reducing external dependencies and shares how to use guardrails and discovery services to achieve 25+ deployments per day.
By Luca MezzaliraAgoda’s API Agent Converts Any API to MCP with Zero Code and Deployments
Agoda engineers developed API Agent, enabling a single MCP server to access any internal REST or GraphQL API with zero code and zero deployments. The system reduces overhead from multiple APIs, supports AI-assisted queries, and uses in-memory SQL post-processing for safe, scalable data handling across internal services.
By Leela KumiliPodcast: [Video Podcast] Building Resilient Event-Driven Microservices in Financial Systems with Muzeeb Mohammad
In this episode, Thomas Betts chats with Muzeeb Mohammad about building event-driven microservices for financial systems. The discussion covers some of the core principles and patterns for event-driven architectures, reasons for using these patterns, and some of the challenges related to finance and other highly-regulated industries.
By Muzeeb Mohammad
© 2026 Created by Michael Levin.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!
Join Codetown