GPL is for freedom to the end-user of the software, not to the developer reusing the code.
GPL also does not limit commercial use, you just have to make the software available to all end-users when they request it.
My name is Matteo and I'm a cloud solution architect and tech enthusiast. In my spare time, I work on open source software as much as I can. I simply enjoy writing software that is actually useful.
My name is Matteo and I'm a cloud solution architect and tech enthusiast. In my spare time, I work on open source software as much as I can. I simply enjoy writing software that is actually useful.
GPL is for freedom to the end-user of the software, not to the developer reusing the code.
GPL also does not limit commercial use, you just have to make the software available to all end-users when they request it.
Which means death to all the commercial software. Even the great gpl-licensed softwares like MySQL actually sell a different licensed version
Yet mysql is GPL licensed and there are several large companies around it.
Red hat is a big business all around GPL software
Sure there is a place for other licenses but there are big advantages to GPL, where it puts everyone participating in a project on the same level
Actually most Red Hat software are under Apache license. They used GPL for RHEL because of linux
I would imagine that Red Hat chose GPL not because of Linux, but because of the majority of utility software being GNU software.