The 451 Group found that GPLv3, the latest version of the GNU General Public License (GPL), is creating disruption within the enterprise open source industry. With the introduction of version 3 of the license, the GPL underwent its first revision in 15 years, causing much debate and uncertainty among developers and vendors as to the impact of the new license on existing projects and practices.

GPL is the world's most widely used open source license and the practical embodiment of the 'free' software movement, according to the analysts.

"GPLv3 is a necessary, significant update," said Jay Lyman, an enterprise software analyst with The 451 Group and lead author of the report. "The changes to the GPL with this update, both philosophical and practical, will bring varied reactions -- increased adoption by some, a preference to remain with the status quo and GPLv2 by many, and potentially a move away from the GPL altogether by others."

Analysts at The 451 Group believe that GPLv3 offers key improvements, most notably compatibility with other open source licenses, including Apache. A move from GPLv2 to GPLv3 increases the potential for integrating and collaborating with other projects licensed under different terms, which should help to spur further open source innovation and overall adoption. In addition, The 451 Group believes code auditing and compliance companies, as well as open source stack and support providers, will benefit from confusion and controversy around GPLv3 as vendors, developers and others sort through its compatibility, liability and other ramifications.

"Prominent projects or vendors, such as Sun Microsystems or Google, may look to adopt GPLv3 for some projects or code in order to build goodwill in the larger open source software community or claim an innovation advantage," said Raven Zachary, 451 Open Source Research Director.

About this study

The 451 Group 30-page report, 'GPLv3: Liberation or limitation?,' was written by Jay Lyman, together with Raven Zachary. This 451 CAOS report analyzes the business and development opportunities and pitfalls that the GPLv3 presents, as well as which classes of companies are embracing it and which are, wisely, avoiding it.

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