What many GPL supporters fail to understand is that GPL doesn't hinder or hurt big companies at all. If they find a GPL-licensed piece of software they need, they just pay their developers to make another proprietary one. With the exception of huge projects like Linux, it's a rounding error for them.
No, the only ones the GPL hinders are small-time freelance devs and small devs shops who are trying to make a living. Often, these are the same devs who are leading open source projects of their own. When they need to create a proprietary project to pay the bills, a GPL-licensed library is usually the end of the road for their project, since they won't have the manpower to replicate it on their own.
Aside from these issues, do we really care that we can't access the source of Subtle Text? As long as it's got a good API, I don't see the big problem. Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong supporter of open source, and have realized numerous modest projects under the MIT license. But proprietary projects, even ones that use my MIT code, don't offend me to the core like they do RMS and co-ideologues (incidentally, I feel like I'd really get along with RMS as a person, even if he might shun me).
No, the only ones the GPL hinders are small-time freelance devs and small devs shops who are trying to make a living. Often, these are the same devs who are leading open source projects of their own. When they need to create a proprietary project to pay the bills, a GPL-licensed library is usually the end of the road for their project, since they won't have the manpower to replicate it on their own.
Aside from these issues, do we really care that we can't access the source of Subtle Text? As long as it's got a good API, I don't see the big problem. Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong supporter of open source, and have realized numerous modest projects under the MIT license. But proprietary projects, even ones that use my MIT code, don't offend me to the core like they do RMS and co-ideologues (incidentally, I feel like I'd really get along with RMS as a person, even if he might shun me).