On Monday, November 12, 2001, at 11:40  PM, Russell Allen wrote:

> Assuming that I am not going to worry too much about making life easy
> for people who want to make proprietary versions of my code, is there a
> situation where GPLing my code will impede the use of that code by other
> researchers?

Squeak (or any other open source Smalltalk model) is an excellent 
example where GPL fails in an open source context.  You cannot include 
GPL code in a monolithic image combined with non-GPL code and distribute 
the same.  Accordingly, Smalltalkers not working exclusively in 
GPL-based systems face constant license-lawyering, wondering whether the 
next bit of code violates some or another license.

RMS recognized early on that distributions of GPL with unrelated 
(non-derivative) non-GPL code, and their coexistence on a single system 
and ability to run on a non-GPL'd OS, was essential for workers in the 
real world.  The problem is that the exception presumes the traditional 
Unix-based OS/application dichotomy, which has no meaning in a 
monolithic image model (indeed, Squeak need not even run under an OS).