Wheeler argues that the copyleft provided by the GPL was crucial to the success of Linux-based systems, giving the programmers who contributed to the kernel the assurance that their work would benefit the whole world and remain free, rather than being exploited by software companies that would not have to give anything back to the community.

Prominent free software programs licensed under the GPL include the Linux kernel and the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). Historically, the GPL license family has been one of the most popular software licenses in the free and open-source software (FOSS) domain. It is more restrictive than the Lesser General Public License and even further distinct from the more widely used permissive software licenses BSD, MIT, and Apache. These GPL series are all copyleft licenses, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms. The license grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. The license was the first copyleft for general use and was originally written by Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), for the GNU Project. The GNU General Public License ( GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software.

Software licensed under GPL compatible licenses only, depending on the version used. Linking from code with a different licence

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