xgettext (Re: replication of stuff in /usr/gnu)

[Darren.Reed at Sun.COM]

Nicolas Williams wrote:

>...
>  
>
>>Due to the fact that the FSF is currently converting all officialy FSF blessed 
>>GNU tools to GPLv3, this is something that needs careful observation.
>>    
>>
>
>The GPLv2'ed versions can still be used.
>  
>

But if they become GPLv3 and GPLv3 is unpalatable then the future
of what to do with the GPLv2 code needs to be considered because
you cannot apply patches/changes from the v3 code back.  This then
increases the cost of using that code because we're stuck with
something we can't upgrade in step with the greater community.

This is why I would recommend caution in introducing any new
GPLv2 packages that come from the FSF or depend tightly on
things that come from the FSF.

Although people are taking steps to create repositories of some
critical GPLv2 things (gcc, gdb, etc) before they switch over to
GPLv3, nobody yet knows what the future of that will be, whether
it is code forks or something else.

Darren