&gt; ... although there are still proprietary forks, especially in embedded systems, because of limited resources (and apparently sometimes appetite) for GPL enforcement.<p>As you said the software freedom conservancy is having financial troubles (why the Linux foundation doesn&#x27;t just cut them a cheque is beyond me). However, a lot of embedded systems use BSD and other such systems. And ultimately, that&#x27;s not the point I was making. The point is that the GPL not allowing proprietary forks is a benefit (both from a freedom aspect, but also from a technical aspect) and has given us all much better technologies as a result. The &quot;freedom&quot; to make proprietary software (which is a misuse of the term) is a tiny &quot;benefit&quot; (I don&#x27;t think it is a benefit) when compared to the end results of GPL software like Linux.