GPL License - AshokBhat/notes GitHub Wiki

About

• GNU General Public License (GPL)
• Prominent software - Linux kernel and the GNU toolchain
• Originally written by Richard Stallman
• Copyleft license

Common versions

Version	Products	Notes
GPLv2	Linux kernel, Valgrind, QEMU
GPLv3	GIMP	Not so popular Considered very strict as compared to GPLv2
LGPL	VLC, 7-zip	Primarily for libraries

LGPL

• Primarily used for software libraries
• Requires that derived works be licensed under the same license
• But works that only link to it do not fall under this restriction

References

• choosealicense.com - GPL v2
• choosealicense.com - GPL v3
• choosealicense.com - LGPL

See also

• Copyleft - GPL License
• Permissive - MIT | BSD | Apache License