From messiah to pariah: The death of open source on mobile • The Register: "Open source has gone from pariah to messiah in the past decade, but it has yet to find a place at the mobile table, and risks being rendered obsolete."
Interesting. Tell me more.
Part of this comes from open-source licenses clashing with app store policies. It's perhaps not surprising that Microsoft isn't a big fan of GPL software within its Windows Phone Marketplace, but given its still-small market share, it may also not be a big deal. Of far more concern is the fact that Apple has started pulling GPL software from its virtual shelves.
This is partially true. In reality, both Microsoft and Apple rely very heavily on open source software. But that's not the reason GPL'd software doesn't end up in the various app stores.
No, the real problem is that there's a bunch of open source zealots (read: douchebags) who want to hold their software hostage to prove a point. Rather than proselytizing the value of open source software (and that you can get high quality, not crappy software inexpensively) these douches just ensure that they'll continue have a forum to yell at folks while the world passes them by.
I love open source software. By and large, it's how I make my living (Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Ruby/etc). Folks who are developing open source for the joy of developing would be smart to choose BSD or MIT-like licenses rather than GPL'd licenses. Those licenses were developed sanely for the purpose of pushing technology forward, not holding it hostage.
(Note: this isn't legal advice. While I've watched a bunch of law shows on TV, I am not a law-talking guy. I'm just a caveman, unfrozen by your scientists ...)