Is .NET 5.0 and C# 9 a "threat" to D?

[IGotD-]

On Thursday, 12 November 2020 at 19:08:37 UTC, Gregor Mückl wrote:
>
> This is an overview over the licenses for the .NET 5.0 Windows 
> Desktop Runtime:
>
> https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/master/license-information-windows.md
>
> So this is quite a mix and the most worrying part are the two 
> libraries under the Visual Studio License. My understanding is 
> that these are not free (as in beer) unless you qualify for a 
> Visual Studio Community license.
>
> My understanding is that the Linux version is free of these 
> constraints.

The question is what "free" means here. If that part contains GPL 
or LGPL parts then it might be even more useless than a 
commercial license. You can always buy a commercial license if 
you want to and if you think the price is fair and then you can 
do what you want. GPL and LGPL puts restrictions on the 
distribution including your product. What is usually the most 
deterring is that you must open up your system for tampering 
which is a no no for many products.

D wins here as it is using the Boost license which is a huge 
benefit.