Sounds like you've worked for companies that were either unusual*, stupid, or
paranoid. Most programmers (I've heard estimates as high as 90%) do internal
development, and their code is never in danger of being distributed outside of
the company they work for. Most of my jobs have been in this category, and for
many years, none of the companies I've worked for has had any objection to using
GPL'd software.
The last time I worked for a VAR, where we actually sold our software to third
parties, we used quite a bit of GPL'd software for development tools, but that
was strictly firewalled from what we shipped. But we did end up shipping one
standalone GPL'd tool (with source) because it was standalone. We had a BSD'd
version we could have used, but it used the old BSD license, with the
advertising clause, and the company president decided that shipping the source
for the tool was a better option.
* I include all companies that develop software for sale in this category,
because that really is an unusual thing--most companies, including most
companies that employ programmers, don't do this.
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Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for it makes them soggy and hard to
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