Why should a software company GPL its code
Here’s a very good discussion on Slashdot that revolves around business reasons for a company to GPL their code. Some of those include:
- Other people can fix your bugs and security holes for you
- No need to pay for beta testers
- Free development of new features, some of which you might not otherwise have thought of yourselves if you can get a development community started.
- Free positive P.R. for your company, especially if things really take off.
- Free advertising for your company as well if you brand the package with your company logo and colours by default.
The issues that came from this thread http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=159218&cid=13334726 are especially insightful.