Ext JS 2.1 Now GPL (was LGPL)

Dietrich Kappe, Wednesday, April 23, 2008 @ 6:00 am

One thing I overlooked with the release of Ext JS 2.1 is that it is now GPL rather than LGPL. That means that if you build Ext JS 2.1 into your app, it would have to be GPL's if you planned to distribute it. (See this flame thread on the extjs forum).

Not a problem if you are providing a service, but if you are distributing the application, then you are GPL infected.

If we look at part of the GPL v2:

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

Now IANAL, but if you distribute a stub application with at least 2 UI implementations that can be downloaded and installed separately, you might be OK. Another argument for designing your applications as service providers that can be accessed by multiple different clients. That way you can change UI frameworks as necessary, such as when your current framework changes open source licenses.

Jack Slocum's take on the matter is that GPL only applies if you are hooking into it on the server side:

This is correct for any code that is, for example, just sending down
JSON or XML. If you are generating any markup or javascript code via
the server in a page that also includes Ext, then the server code will
have to be GPL as well.

Seems reasonable, and, if you are designing commercial software, it forces you to make good design decisions, by keeping your UI and your app logic separable. Being able to separate your presentation layer from you business and display logic is just good practice, but not cheap.

The really frustrating part is all of the Apache/GPL mashups that are now not allowed. This is sure not to be the last of the Ext JS kerfuffle, nor the fork talk.

agile ajax

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