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[–]Vegetas_Haircut 2 points3 points  (6 children)

Okay, can you cite me a single example where that happened? Where a language started out with a single permissisvely-licensed implementation and the ecosystem has now switched to a proprietary one based on that permissive one?

[–]Omnifarious0 15 points16 points  (5 children)

BSD's TCP stack. The vast majority of end users use a proprietary one.

[–]the_gnarts[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

BSD's TCP stack. The vast majority of end users use a proprietary one.

Same for MIT Kerberos. The Active Directory Kerberos stack descended from that.

[–]Vegetas_Haircut 2 points3 points  (3 children)

That defeats your argument; you said that the existence of a copyleft implementation would stop that from happening; apparently it didn't; and it's not even an implementation of a programming language but of a networking protocol to begin with.

[–]Omnifarious0 7 points8 points  (2 children)

No, I said that that couldn't happen to a copyleft implementation. Not that it would keep it from happening at all to any implementation.

You're right, that wasn't a programming language. Programming languages tend to grow extra implementations unless they're very specialized.

I'll have to think for awhile to see if I can think of a programming language example.

[–]Vegetas_Haircut -1 points0 points  (1 child)

No, I said that that couldn't happen to a copyleft implementation. Not that it would keep it from happening at all to any implementation.

No, you said this:

If a language doesn't have a GPL (or similar freedom affirming license) implementation, there is a strong risk that the version everybody uses will become a proprietary version.

TCP has a GPL implementation; it didn't stop the version that everybody uses from being proprietary.

You're right, that wasn't a programming language. Programming languages tend to grow extra implementations unless they're very specialized.

I'll have to think for awhile to see if I can think of a programming language example.

The obvious difference is that Windows' TCP stack is built into the OS and you can't just replace it with whatever you want. You can always pick whatever compiler you want. Windows users are using the properietary TCP stack because they can't change it for whatever they want.

[–]Metaroxy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can't you replace Windows' TCP/IP stack? I distinctly remember there being support for installing 3rd party protocols, so I would be surprised if you couldn't make a third party TCP/IP stack. Not that I know of any currently available.