If you actively try to avoid software that is licensed under BSD or ISC, only Gnu’s Marxist license, then that means you won’t use OpenSSH or the security tools ported over from OpenBSD into both Linux and Android and will not use an operating system or programs that have been compiled with LLVM/Clang.

OP did say “wherever possible”, not “without any compromises”; I agree that it would be very challenging to try and live on purely GPL software, but it just seems like they’re looking for potential alternatives. I think it’s admirable given their stance on libre software.

Gnu’s Marxist license

This seems like such a blanket statement designed to put down copyleft advocates “because communism”. Do you think the right to repair movement - which advocates for control over one’s hardware (in contrast to software) - is also Marxist? I consider these two movements as practically adjacent to one another.

I prioritize system security, and for that I only care about open source and reject free/libre software due to all of its built-in political implications. But also defend the right for people to make proprietary software. I won’t use it, but defend people’s right to make it.

I ask the following more out of curiousity than argumentatively, because I still don’t quite understand this position: do you still encourage people to use libre software in this case? If libre software is better than proprietary software, why shouldn’t we strive for a world where all software is libre? Is there any reason for software to not respect its users’ freedoms? I’m not saying that we should all be hardcore GPL-only-or-die enthusiasts, either; rather that it seems reasonable to aim for a life free of proprietary software, one step at a time. In my opinion, copyleft can accomplish that better than permissive licenses would.

I think you may be misunderstanding the “free” part of FOSS. FOSS - also known as free software - is free as in freedom, not beer (this confusion is also why I refer to it as libre software). It has nothing to do with money - it is all about having control over the software that you use.

Some here have already pointed out the massive proliferation of libre software that forms practically the entire foundation of the Internet, but I would also like to mention that there are some projects that might even say that being libre software has made it more sustainable; for example, here’s a talk about how the GPLv3 (a copyleft libre software license) keeps the Samba project alive.

There are certain monetization approaches that are infeasible with libre software, yes, but I would argue that this is only ever the case with practices that are anti-consumer. Games as a service is a good example of this; I think it’s absurd you can buy a game that you should rightfully own indefinitely, only for it to become literally borked because it was specifically designed to always be connected to the game company’s servers which could be taken down at any moment. With libre software? You have access to the source code, so it’s not impossible anymore to get your own server running if someone else hasn’t already made the necessary modifications to make it happen.

The philosophy of (and reasons to care about) libre software isn’t quite the topic of this post so I won’t elaborate too much on it (unless you want, of course), but feel free to take a look at this page which discusses just that if you’re interested.

As @[email protected] commented, the official definitions of free software and Open Source actually overlap quite heavily; the concerns made by many - including Stallman/the FSF and even Bruce Perens (author of the Open Source Definition) - involve the belief that Open Source has detached from the values associated with the free software movement.

If you are in fact specifically addressing the fairly small subset of open-source-but-not-free software, I would guess that the overlap is great enough for it to not detract from discussions, and “open source” is simply more commonly used.

Just a note, I’m also pretty sure some people in the comments have mixed up free-as-in-libre software for free-as-in-beer software, which is why I prefer to say “libre” instead.

Section 6 of the GPLv2 states the following:

Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients’ exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

The way I interpret this, nothing about your ability to “copy, distribute or modify” the code would be violated. “The Program” wouldn’t refer to the live, changing copy; only the copy that you received at that point in time which you are still able to redistribute. I point specifically to the wording of “Each time you redistribute the Program” - since newer versions of the Program are no longer being distributed to you, the terms no longer apply for these newer copies. Neither this section nor any other section forbids you from denying access to binaries.

No, I am no “free” to do whatever I want. I want to distribute that source is strictly allowed under the GPL, but then RH penalizes me for exercising that right by terminating that account. That’s a restriction. How is being penalized for doing what I’m allowed to do not a restriction?

They only said “free to do whatever you want with the source code provided for the binaries they distributed to you”, which is true? You wouldn’t be receiving any further binaries that would require releasing code to you, and you’d still be able to copy/distribute/modify the code that you got up until that point.

How about yet another angle for you. For example, I download and distribute the source RPM for gcc for the version running on my box. RH terminates my account. Now I want to download and distribute the source RPM for the kernel running on my box. How do I do that with a terminated account?

As mentioned above, you’d be perfectly able to redistribute the code associated with the binaries already provided to you. Once your account is terminated, you’d no longer have access to the binaries that you could request the code for.

Please correct me if I’m wrong; IANAL.