Re: 'twas always thus
There is another dimension here. MIT, BSD and Apache licensing is closer to the LGPLv2, which used to be a pretty common choice for projects that didn't want restrict use to just GPL'd projects.
When they messed with the LGPL they destroyed it's utility to many projects that didn't want to limit the scope of their project to permanent GPL only restrictions. As a result new projects have been moving to the other permissive licenses.
Despite the bun fight that happened when the AGPL/LGPLv2.1 launched, a bunch of projects stayed on the LGPLv2, some even began publishing under dual license terms. That is a pain for the contributors, doubly so when activist "contributors" start refusing to make code commits under a permissive license to force the whole project to go AGPL.
By strong-arming the community to use the most restrictive versions of the GPL, the FSF and activist developers made the GPL, even the LGPL, look like a risky and unstable choice, when safe and stable choices were available. So big surprise we see the share of GPL code tanking. The latest terms seem geared to benefit commercial operations that want to dress up as open source and cry foul when someone interferes with their business model by using the "free and open" code they published.
I am glad that the permissive license projects are thriving, and the open source community has come into it's own. I contribute code to these projects to give back to an ecosystem that has been a huge resource to me over the years. I give these parts of my work for free, with the hope it will benefit others and save someone re-inventing the wheel. I'm proud to see that spirit grow in the world.
I miss the old LGPL terms, because they made it east to support the idea of Copy-Left without excluding other options, and allowing projects to separate parts of a project to allow more permissive licensing to support code re-use and interoperability. That helped keep new projects choosing the GPL family as the defacto choice. Now, having driven so many projects and developers out, other choices are forming a new center. Because of the large number of foundational projects under GPL, it isn't going anywhere, but it isn't on the vanguard anymore, and it may not need to be.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
