
BackPress: Core PHP libraries for your web applications - nreece
http://backpress.org/
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pufuwozu
After developing many WordPress based websites, I can say that the code and
documentation aren't that great. I'm not sure why someone would want to
extract something so unglamorous.

Hopefully the project will be able to improve both by giving it a different
focus.

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midnightmonster
GPL licensed--not so useful for many purposes.

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sanswork
Could you explain what these might be? Or what in a PHP web application with
the GPL can you not do that you could with say a BSD license?

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cookiecaper
The GPL is infectious; any code that uses a GPL library automatically becomes
GPL as well. This is why the LGPL (Lesser GNU Public License, which was
developed for libraries) exists; the LGPL is just like the GPL except it
doesn't infect linked code.

In short, using a GPL'd PHP library in your application mandates that
significant swaths of your application be released under the GPL as well.
That's not a problem if you wanted to release under the GPL to start with, but
it's a problem for anyone else on either side of the spectrum; if you wanted
to be All Rights Reserved, you couldn't, and if you wanted to be freer and
license under LGPL, MIT or even public domain, you couldn't do that either.

For this reason, developers have to be quite careful about how they use GPL'd
software to make sure that it doesn't impose unwanted licensing restrictions.

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apgwoz
While you say infectious as a bad thing, I see it as a great thing. If I
choose to release something under the a permissive license, why shouldn't I
ask you to share your contributions as well? I don't get what all the fuss is
about lately with the GPL haters--most of whom rely on it everyday.

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codexon
_While you say infectious as a bad thing, I see it as a great thing. If I
choose to release something under the a permissive license, why shouldn't I
ask you to share your contributions as well?_

For this simple situation:

What if I want to be freer than the GPL? What if I want to release my next
project with a BSD license so that even commercial users or people who want to
keep part of their source private can use it?

The GPL is not very suitable for commercial applications. How many fewer
people do you think would be using GCC if not for the special exception that
allows you to produce GPL-free binaries?

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BjornW
To clarify:

You can use GPL licensed software and sell it. There is nothing preventing you
from commercially exploiting GPL licensed software. In fact there are plenty
of companies doing so. You just have to include the source.

You might find this less attractive for your (commercial) goals and needs, but
I find it quite attractive and important to have access to the source and the
possibility to alter or enhance the software I use, while preventing
freeloading (not quite true with GPL, see services as a loophole, AGPL is
actually even better at preventing freeloading) to a certain degree.

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codexon
Selling GPL software is practically impossible because someone just needs to
download the source, recompile, and then distribute it to make your business
obsolete.

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nir
HN discussion seems to have taken a pretty negative attitude recently. WP are
letting anyone use the code that powers their own apps. For free. In return we
complain about the license (how many people write PHP code to be distributed
without the source anyway? Wordpress itself is under GPL and seems to do quite
nicely) or doubt the security.

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mncaudill
I'm not sure that this is a WordPress/Automattic release. I couldn't find any
indication of who actually is behind this, and the annoying hover ads are a
weird touch.

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AdamGibbins
Automattic are behind it, at least it comes from their repo:
<http://svn.automattic.com/backpress/trunk>

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mncaudill
I stand corrected.

The ads are still strange though.

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noodle
i wonder what kind of crossover there is between this library set and code
actively being used in wordpress if there is any. specifically, with respect
to the seemingly frequent security issues and updates.

