How does the LGPL benefit me as a developer or end-user of FDO Open Source?
Apart from the clear advantages of making available free and open source code for development and maintenance purposes, the LGPL gives FDO Open Source users the assurance that any modifications or enhancements to the source code will also remain open and freely available. Under the LGPL, anyone that makes enhancements to the FDO Open Source source code is required to reciprocate by making those changes available when the code is redistributed. Some open source licenses such as the MIT or BSD licenses do not contain this reciprocity obligation. The result is that although the software initially distributed under those licenses is open source, modified versions of that software are not required to be open source. Companies can take this software and create closed proprietary versions, or create “forks”, which can result in incompatible versions of FDO Open Source being distributed by different vendors.
