You can. It doesn’t matter. But I have made a lot of efforts to reach a place where I like to work together and only work with people who may lag behind them. The more selective the client is, the more inclined it is to enjoy my work. Free software is important to me because they hire me. Be smart about this. If the customer agrees that the work I hire has a GPL license, I can turn around and launch it or sell it the next day. But generally speaking, I am not. The GPL provides a minimum of acceptable behavior. We should not confuse what we can do with what we should do. Personal morality is very important. The
Not all code must eventually be publicly available. In some cases, you can create plug-ins for clients that explicitly target a distribution, or allow clients to distribute. It’s great, great, but most client operations can’t be released unless my client is looking for help from its own plug-in. All cases are unique. GPL gives freedom. Like any other freedom, what you do with it is up to you. But freedom can be dirty. Freedom can be used to exploit loopholes or make people look like upright people. The
The client task can be the R & D of its own task. In my case, if the client task is used as \
In fact, many times, customers hire me to integrate my products or other plug-ins I contribute with their websites. Maybe they should hire me because the plug-in doesn’t have oneortwo features. The first responsibility is to make the client site work, but if the same code or code based on that code can be used in the original plug-in, it will be a great victory for everyone. This means that the client can get what it needs, get better products, and maintain the site more easily. The problem is that it is difficult to switch from client operation to product operation. Extending product operations takes time. Sales of services to implement or expand products can be a good source of revenue for the expansion of mature products. When the product matures, it will benefit all users, including those hired for customization. The
That’s about goals. Few people choose WordPress FOR GPL. They choose it because it meets their needs and helps achieve their goals. Of course, WordPress would not exist without GPL. People come to you as developers, not because you like free software, but because you can use it to help you achieve their goals. It is up to you to use this freedom wisely and responsibly to achieve your goals.
