It’s starting to sound to me like the cost of a windows license is cheaper than the cost of a lawyer to figure out if any and all
software you’re going to be writing software for/against/with will conflict with the zillions of linux related licenses.
I never thought of it before, but it sounds like the free software people are shooting themselves in the foot by having so many
different incompatible licenses. Actually I don’t know if they’re incompatible or not, but I’m certainly not going to pay a lawyer to
find out.
Now that’s just a cost-of-business kinda thing. I fully support anybody who wants to write any software and put as many or as few licenses on it having to do with statically building or non distribution or sale, etc… But you gotta figure, the end user (a software development company) is going to take a short soft look at “buy a windows license or figure out what we can and can’t easily use in the free software world” and they’re going to see that the windows license is an easier deal.
I tell ya, I’m a unix guy through and through, but at this point after hearing about all these different licenses, I’d lean towards
going with windows.