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Apple has a conflict with the LGPL in iOS apps, so Xamarin offers a commercial license. I'm not sure why this restriction would apply on other platforms though.

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It's not a conflict with the LPGL, it's technical. Apple does not allow iOS apps to link to any shared libraries, they must be statically linked. Apple does not care how you license your libraries, only that you have the permission to do so, just like any other licensed content like photos or music.

It's also because Apple would be considered a distributor of the final application, thus according to the rules of the GPL, they'd be forced to provide the source code for any app that used GPL code.

Since they don't have access to the source code, they can't fulfill the legal obligation outlined in the GPL license.

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