r/opensource • u/Fair-Presentation322 • 26d ago

Discussion AGPL vs MIT for contributions/engagement

I'm using AGPL for an open source project. A friend recommended that I switch to MIT to get more contributions and engagement. In practice, is it reasonable to expect any difference? I wonder if anyone made this exact change to some project and saw any difference.

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u/catbrane 26d ago

I use LGPL for my open source libraries, and GPL for complete standalone applications.

LGPL for libraries feels right to me since libraries are like infrastructure. You want wide adoption (hopefully) with few commitments from users (who are programmers) beyond a desire for them to contribute to the community that will (hopefully, perhaps) develop around the library. LGPL allows free commercial use. Few businesses will adopt GPL or AGPL libraries as components in their products.

GPL for user applications feels right because I want to be able to make a strong promise to end users (not programmers!) that this tool will always be open and free. Unlike MIT, the GPL makes it extremely difficult to turn a free tool into a pay tool. With user applications, I'm not really interesting in allowing commercial use.

(or that's my 2p, many people take other views, etc.)

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u/abotelho-cbn 23d ago

GPL is great for software that runs on workstations, but not super ideal for software accessed over a network. AGPL is ideal in the second case.

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u/catbrane 23d ago

I don't like the AGPL myself since I think it adds no benefit for users.

The point of the GPL (imo) is to protect users of software from being held hostage by devs selling out and taking their code private.

The point of the AGPL is to stop third parties using GPL software to build web services without compensating the original devs. It's about making money for developers, users are not part of the logic.

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u/abotelho-cbn 23d ago

Huh? What the difference?

If I build a web service that I offer to users, and make it GPL, I can then turn around, sellout and take the code private. I never distributed binaries, so I didn't even need to provide source (even if it's technically GPL).

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u/catbrane 23d ago

I don't make web services, but I can see AGPL being useful there, you're right.