brandon

Yeah, but you and I aren’t really representative of all software people. Most of them just want to grill.

Why do they not care?

Because, for many of them, they don’t have any reason to. In other words, privilege. Copyleft licensing is a subversive, anti-establishment thing, and software engineers are predominantly people who benefit from the established power structures. Middle/upper class white men (I’m included in that category, by the way). There’s basically no pressure for them to rock the boat.

And why would they avoid GPL

Because many of them are “libertarian” ideologues who have a myopic focus on negative liberty (as opposed to the positive variety).

Well, my experiences with my coworkers would lead me to pretty much exactly the opposite conclusion: the majority would probably intentionally avoid the GPL, if they even care at all.

I can’t believe professional developers choose MIT because they can’t be arsed to look at the license choices

Have you worked with many professional developers?

If you’re in the US and a citizen, you do not have to divulge your password to the authorities or even a judge, per the 5th Amendment. However, they can force you to use your fingerprint or FaceID to unlock your phone.

They can, however, probably seize your phone, and refuse to return it to you. Something to keep in mind when deciding to take your primary device, or a burner.

The unfortunate reality is that a significant proportion of software engineers (and other IT folks) are either laissez-faire “libertarians” who are ideologically opposed to the restrictions in the GPL, or “apolitical” tech-bros who are mostly just interested in their six figure paychecks and fancy toys.

To these folks, the MIT/BSD licenses have fewer restrictions, and are therefore more free, and are therefore more better.

The actual reason is because in 2015 “Hewlett Packard” split into two companies, one called HP, Inc, and one called HP Enterprise. The print and consumer PC business went to HPI, while the server and network hardware went to HPE. So, writing just “HP” could be interpreted as ambiguous.

I once got called the f-slur for having the audacity to read a book in public, outdoors in front of the library.