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Sebastian_Hagen comments on Disclosure vs. Bans: Reply to Robin Hanson - Less Wrong
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I didn't, and you shouldn't either - because it isn't true. Cygwin doesn't have a uniform license; it's split between public domain, X11-like and GNU GPL (version >= 2). The most restrictive of these is the GNU GPL, and there is nothing in that license prohibiting use of the software for commercial purposes, or even selling copies of it - it's just that if you give anyone a binary which either includes or links against code you've licensed under the GPL, you also have to give them the source, and if you give someone such code (either source or object), you also have to give them all the freedoms for the entire package the GPL gave to you.
One practical upshot of all this is that if you use or link against GPL code, you probably won't be able to make money by distributing the resulting binaries according to a traditional proprietary software business model. But there's nothing preventing you from using GPLed software (either as distributed, or modified to your needs) for business purposes, selling gadgets that run GPLed software, or any of a bunch of other things.
You appear to be technically right, based on this. I remember reading the Cygwin license several years ago and concluding that I couldn't use it at work; now I can't remember if that was because of the GPL.
In practice, you can rarely use GPLed software libraries for development unless you work for a nonprofit. Cygwin is not a library, so you can use it as an operating system with no restrictions. I can't remember now why I was so worried about they licensing terms. Perhaps they were different then.
That's a gross overgeneralization.
That seems to overstate it rather - it's a generalisation, but it's mostly true. Most software written for for-profit employers isn't GPL, and is often distributed even if only to a client or to other employees, so can't link to GPLed libraries directly. Still that's a long way from saying you can't use Cygwin at work. Sebastian Hagen's comment seems accurate to me.
Distributing to fellow employees is still internal to the company, is it not? So that would not trigger the public source clause.