[9fans] why not GNU Ghostscript instead of AFPL Ghostscript?

[9fans] why not GNU Ghostscript instead of AFPL Ghostscript?

[Wei Mingzhi]

the AFPL ghostscript is non-free software and has a
restrictive license restricting commercial
distribution...

and this has just made the sale of Plan9 CD illegal...

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Re: [9fans] why not GNU Ghostscript instead of AFPL Ghostscript?

[Russ Cox]

> the AFPL ghostscript is non-free software and has a
> restrictive license restricting commercial
> distribution...

That's okay, Plan 9 used to be non-free software and have
a restrictive license restricting commercial distribution.
(But we fixed that.)

The last time I imported Ghostscript, GNU Ghostscript
was way behind AFPL Ghostscript.  There were important
bug fixes I wanted that were only available in AFPL Ghostscript.
That was years ago now and the situation has probably
changed, but gs has been working well enough that I haven't
bothered to take the time to upgrade it.  Until the next round
of revisions to PostScript or PDF, I don't feel a need.

Some users in Japan have prepared a gs for Plan 9 that is newer.
Maybe they chose the GNU version.

> and this has just made the sale of Plan9 CD illegal...

This is not true.  Section 2.a.ii of the AFPL (see /LICENSE.afpl
on a Plan 9 CD) explicitly allows sale of CDs as long as the rest
of the software on the CD is free for non-commercial use,
which Plan 9 is.

Russ