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Which license should we pick?

Which license should we pick?“Whichever one our users' companies let them install.”Nora Bell, The User Advocate

💡 WHY NORA IS RIGHT

The people who adopt developer tools rarely choose the license; their employer's policy does. If the target users work at banks, governments or large enterprises, an AGPL or source-available license can make the tool invisible to them no matter how good it is. Asking a handful of real users what their legal teams allow takes a day, and the answer often settles the choice more reliably than any principle debated internally.

✅ RIGHT WHEN

The target users work inside organizations with strict open-source policies.

🚩 TOO FAR WHEN

Every license choice waits for a survey of users who have not adopted the tool yet.

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