Actually I know Guido pretty well, and the execs at BeOpen who hired
Guido.  The ONLY problem in the licensing is that CNRI wants the venue for
legal action to be Virginia where they are located, this is to cover their
butts if someone comes after them because of something that happened with
Python during the 5 years they were responsible for it.  The GPL doesn't
like this restriction and RMS is being his usual self about it.

The reality is that no one is going to fork Python, it's too big and too
far along for anyone to care about the license issue.  Even if it is
forked, just keep using the Guido version, does anyone on the 3000 really
care if Python is GPL'd or not?  I doubt it.  My company is hugely
committed to Python and we are developing a VBA like structure for the KDE
desktop on Linux.  Python totally rocks, just follow Guido and the Python
labs and you will be fine.

At 09:29 AM 9/14/2000, James B. Byrne wrote:
>On 13 Sep 2000, at 8:42, Shawn Gordon wrote:
>
> > that said, I'm becoming a huge fan of Python these days, and my
> > company is even working on some IDE's for visual Python
> > development (multi-platform).  While PHP is more tag based like
> > Cold Fusion, Python would be a full server side scripting
> > language.
>
>A looming problem with Python is that there is a very real
>possibility that the language will divide into two or more
>distinct dialects in the near future if a dispute over the
>licensing terms is not resolved.  If this happens then the
>current Python team leader will begin work on a new version
>starting with the 1.5.2 code base rather than the latest 1.6
>code base.  I am reproducing a portion of the message that I
>received regarding this issue:
>
> > It seems that the Python license, which is quite developer-
> > friendly and workable for most people, is changing and not
> > everyone is happy with the changes. The first change is based
> > on Guido van Rossom, the Python team leader, moving from the
> > Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), where
> > he released several versions of Python. Python 1.6 was the
> > last version released under the auspices of CNRI. For who
> > track these things, the CNRI license is based on a BSDish
> > model.
> >
> > What will happen with Python 2.0 is an open issue. It turns out
> > that the CNRI license model uses language that incompatible with
> > a true GNU Public License.  The controversy has led to
> > discussions between the Python crew and Richard Stallman of the
> > Free Software Foundation, including the broaching of the prospect
> > of an FSF-led forking of Python at the 1.5.2 level. This leaves
> > the small -- but real -- possibility of Python developers having
> > to account for three different code bases.
>
>Caveat Emptor
>
>Regards,
>Jim
>
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>James B. Byrne                Harte & Lyne Limited
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Regards,

Shawn Gordon
President
theKompany.com
www.thekompany.com
949-713-3276