GCC 9.4 Released; GCC Drops Copyright Assignment to the FSF
takyon writes:
GCC 9.4 Compiler Released With 190+ Bug Fixes
GCC 9.4 is now available with this wide range of "fixes for regressions and serious bugs". No new features are provided by GCC 9.4 but for anything new you'll want to move up to the current GCC 11 series for the latest processor support, shiny new C/C++ features, and other improvements.
GCC 12 is the next feature release in development for debut next year.
GCC To No Longer Require Copyright Assignment To The Free Software Foundation
GCC has long required copyright assignment to the FSF for any patches and that's been an issue for some. Especially these days with the FSF coming under fire and even some talking of possible forks to the GNU Compiler Collection or being able to move this open-source compiler further away from the FSF, the steering committee decided to no longer require the controversial copyright assignment.
That copyright assignment (and the GPLv2 to GPLv3 change) blocked Apple from contributing to GCC a decade ago. The copyright assignment has also blocked other contributions to GCC in the past by other organizations.
GCC will continue to be developed under the GPLv3 but no longer require the FSF copyright assignment. Instead, contributors can use the Developer Certificate of Origin with a Signed-off-by tag in their Git messages.
Update to GCC copyright assignment policy
[*] (Because there's bound to be at least one person wondering) GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection:
The GNU Compiler Collection includes front ends for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Ada, Go, and D, as well as libraries for these languages (libstdc++,...).GCC was originally written as the compiler for the GNU operating system.The GNU system was developed to be 100% free software, free in the sense that it respects the user's freedom.
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