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
Article: Jakarta EE 12 Milestone 2: Advent of the Data Age Along with Consistency and Configuration
Jakarta EE 12 Milestone 2 marks the beginning of the next generation of enterprise Java. It introduces Jakarta Query, a unified query language across Persistence, Data, and NoSQL, while aligning the platform with Java 21. This milestone focuses on integration, modernization, and improving developer productivity for cloud-native enterprise applications.
By Otavio SantanaWaku: The Minimal React Framework Reaches Alpha
Waku 1.0 alpha, a lightweight React framework, achieves a major milestone with stable public APIs, shifting focus to bug fixes and compatibility. Ideal for mostly-static sites, it offers flexible rendering options. Built on Vite and Hono, Waku prioritizes developer experience, targeting small projects without the complexity of heavier frameworks like Next.js.
By Daniel CurtisPresentation: Are You Missing a Data Frame? The Power of Data Frames in Java
Vladimir Zakharov explains how DataFrames serve as a vital tool for data-oriented programming in the Java ecosystem. By analyzing The One Billion Row Challenge, he shares how Java frameworks can outperform Python in memory management while maintaining code readability. He discusses practical use cases for senior devs, from ad-hoc data manipulation to building scalable enterprise pipelines.
By Vladimir ZakharovUber Moves In-House Search Indexing to Pull-Based Ingestion in OpenSearch
Uber transitions its in-house search indexing to OpenSearch with a pull-based ingestion framework, improving reliability, backpressure handling, and multi-region consistency for large-scale streaming data while simplifying recovery and supporting global, real-time search experiences.
By Leela KumiliArticle: Building LLMs in Resource-Constrained Environments: A Hands-On Perspective
In this article, the author argues that infrastructure and compute limitations can drive innovation. It demonstrates how smaller, efficient models, synthetic data generation, and disciplined engineering enable the creation of impactful LLM-based AI systems despite severe resource constraints.
By Olimpiu Pop
© 2026 Created by Michael Levin.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Codetown to add comments!
Join Codetown