On Thu, 28 Nov 2002, robin wrote: >That's not a problem anyway - a GPLed program can utilise external >proprietary programs (xforms wasn't GPLed until very recently).
A GPL'd program can link to a non-free library _only_ if the non-free library is part of the operating system. LyX has always had a _modified_ GPL license, which has allowed it to be linked with Xforms. A pure GPL program couldn't be linked with Xforms (unless Xforms is GPL too). >From GPL: ----- However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable. ----
