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.

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.

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.

Stallman added that it's extremely important for Free Software users to upgrade their licenses to GPLv3 so that Novell will eventually put in the new version and the community will get this benefit.

Stallman advised viewers to be wary of those that advise against moving to GPLv3.

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.

A research firm serving the mobile phone industry has published an 18-page whitepaper about open source licensing. Entitled "GPLv2 vs. GPLv3," the paper examines the meteoric rise of open source software, and the forces that shaped each license, before concluding with an extremely detailed point-by-point comparison.

On Friday, June 29, at 12 noon (EDT), the Free Software Foundation will officially release the GNU GPL version 3. Please, join us in celebration as we bring to a close eighteen months of public outreach and comment in revision of the world's most popular free software license.

If anyone out there still thinks that the main Linux kernel might change to the GNU GPLv3 (GNU General Public License Version 3) anytime soon, you can forget about it. At the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit at the Googleplex, five of the leading Linux kernel developers said that they couldn't see anything like a good enough reason to switch to the forthcoming free software license.

"Breaking from the KDE 4.0 release event right now is word that Trolltech will be releasing Qt to be released under the GPLv3 license. An official announcement will be made by Trolltech regarding this GPLv2 to GPLv3 license update on Monday, January 21, 2008..."