That was a long time ago and the actual primary reason was apparently Stallman missed an email [1], although I think the intentional technical hurdles to plugins was another of many reasons. When GNU moved all their software to GPLv3 and the business community decided they didn’t like that license and Apple brought LLVM as a serious contender.
Thanks for the article, I am not sure I fully understand it. Could you point to the section about the missed email? Also, do I understand it right, that emacs doesnt integrate well with llvm? (maybe that explains why in llvm presentations ppl use the 'other' editor, I always wondered why not use emacs)
> An interesting side note to the debate emerged when Liang Wang posted about LLVM creator Chris Lattner's offer to try to get LLVM's copyright assigned to the FSF back in 2005. It was part of an effort (that seemingly went nowhere) to integrate LLVM and GCC. Stallman never heard about the message:
So basically, if Stallman hadn't have missed the message, there's a very real possibility that LLVM would have ended up licensed under GPLv2 & then re-licensed to GPLv3. The engineering world would probably look radically different if that had happened.
GCC hasn’t remained stagnant though.
[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/632062/