A lengthy debate that began with a suggestion to dual license the Linux kernel under the GPLv2 and the GPLv3 [story] continues on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Throughout the ongoing thread Linux creator Linus Torvalds has spoken out on the GPLv2, the upcoming GPLv3, the BSD license, Tivo, the Free Software Foundation, and much more.

Why is this GNU smiling? Because with a political flourish the Free Software Foundation has released the final versions of both GPLv3 and LGPLv3. IBM has given its blessing but there is, as yet, no white smoke rising from Portland, where Linus Torvalds has expressed his preference for GPLv2.

Now that the GPLv3 has been finalised and is now released (and we’re starting to see projects adopting it), many of us in the free software community have been wondering what Linus Torvalds’ stance is on the final version.

The GPLv3 debates are drawing to a close. By the end of the year, it may have become reality. Whether or not the Linux kernel team will adopt the new license, however is still up for debate. Linus Torvalds is not as fervently anti-GPLv3 as he was in earlier renditions of the license, but he still isn't ready to support a wholesale move to it, either.

While the FSF marks a triumph with GPLv3, Linus Torvalds shies away and people respond

In June of 2007, after many months delay, the Free Software Software Foundation released GPLv3. Since that time, the license has been gaining an increased following, but without much threat to GPLv2 in first place.

The free software movement's most important license -- version three of the GNU General Public License was unveiled by the Free Software Foundation late last month. It comes roughly 16 years after its wildly successful predecessor, GPLv2, became one of the most used software licenses ever. Today, approximately three quarters of the world's free software packages are distributed under GPLv2.

Right now, Linus ain’t happy, not at all. Especially about GPLv3. He considers the anti-Tivoization provisions in the new license, which keep you from crippling hardware containing software using the license, to be…well, take it away Linus...

According to an ongoing debate over the GPL version 3, he does. How can this be, since Linus Torvalds, creator and chief architect of the Linux kernel, knows about software freedom and free software?