This. GPL "code sharing" sounds harmless until you realize that it is enforced with a 500 pound ball of red tape that prevents commercial use in numerous typical development scenarios.
What it ensures is that the source code will be released along with any uses. If a products uses your code and someone requests that code from them, they should be able to point to your repository, or theirs, and provide a copy.
Now let's say one day you change course and want to close the source for future development. That is completely okay. Only the code you have already released will be out there under the GPL and the future work will be covered under your new license. Any open source libs you use, you of course have to provide the source for. What this does for all of us is it ensures the source code is available to the developer/consumer and they can modify it as needed.
Just some background, I released an OSS SMTP library in 2000 and I've never had a problem using the same library in any commercial product and in fact I went on to build a small component business on it by offering new closed-source features, such as S/MIME, and support contracts to go along with the purchase.
This is so factually misleading, I don't know where to begin.
On the subject of:
Now let's say one day you change course and want to close the source for future development. That is completely okay.
It may not be okay though. If your code incorporates other people's GPL code, you are unable to close that. And due to the "viral" nature of the GPL, the fact that your code may work together with someone else's GPL code could mean that you can't close your own code either. So you have to be very careful.
It is true that the GPL does not explicitly prohibit commercial use, but this is not the same thing as being broadly compatible with commercial use. In general, the GPL is hostile to commercial use by a whole variety of restrictions, including the requirement to share source code. This may not be immediately obvious to OSS newcomers who just want to share their code and have people use it freely.
