Suitable licenses by Trove category

License names link to trove categories on freshmeat.net. Compatibility with GNU General Public License is based on GNU list of free software licenses. OSI approvements are based on freshmeat.net list of trove categories, but an authoritative list of OSI approved licenses is on OSI website.

Recommendation - Conclusion

The following trove categories (and their subcategories) have the most suitable licenses and should be followed. In alphabethical order

License :: Affero General Public License
License :: Freeware    
License :: Nokia Open Source License (NOKOS)
License :: OSI Approved :: * (all 20+ categories)
License :: Public Domain
License :: SUN Community Source License
License :: The Apache License
License :: The Clarified Artistic License
License :: The PHP License
License :: Zope Public License

OSI approved Free software

Open Source Iniative (OSI) apporved means it is Free software. Some of the OSI approved software below is GPL compatible, some is not.

License :: OSI Approved :: Academic Free License (AFL)
License :: OSI Approved :: Artistic License
License :: OSI Approved :: BSD License (original)
License :: OSI Approved :: BSD License (revised)
License :: OSI Approved :: Common Public License
License :: OSI Approved :: GNAT Modified GPL (GMGPL)
License :: OSI Approved :: GNU Free Documentation License (FDL)
License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL)
License :: OSI Approved :: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
License :: OSI Approved :: Guile license
License :: OSI Approved :: IBM Public License
License :: OSI Approved :: MIT/X Consortium License
License :: OSI Approved :: MITRE Collaborative Virtual Workspace License (CVW)
License :: OSI Approved :: Mozilla Public License (MPL)
License :: OSI Approved :: Open Software License
License :: OSI Approved :: Perl License
License :: OSI Approved :: Python License
License :: OSI Approved :: Q Public License (QPL)
License :: OSI Approved :: Ricoh Source Code Public License
License :: OSI Approved :: SUN Public License
License :: OSI Approved :: W3C License
License :: OSI Approved :: zlib/libpng License
License :: OSI Approved

GPL compatable Free software (non OSI approved)

License :: The Clarified Artistic License
License :: Zope Public License (ZPL) (newer than ZPL 1)
License :: Public Domain (check license text, not just heading)

Free, but not OSI approved and not GPL compatible

These licenses are not recommended for use. However, GNU still recommeneds running some of these programs, namely Apache licensed under the Apache license.

License :: Affero General Public License (will be compatible with GPL 3)
License :: Nokia Open Source License (NOKOS) (similar to MPL)
License :: The Apache License (minor bsd like problem)
License :: SUN Community Source License (minor incompatibility)
License :: The PHP License (3.0 used by PHP 4, not gpl compatible, free)

License :: Netscape Public License (NPL) (gnu: don't use)
License :: The Latex Project Public License (LPPL) (gnu: don't use)

Non-free - avoid these

License :: Free For Educational Use
License :: Free For Home Use
License :: Free for non-commercial use
License :: Free To Use But Restricted
License :: Freely Distributable

License :: Other/Proprietary License
License :: Other/Proprietary License with Free Trial
License :: Other/Proprietary License with Source
License :: Shareware

License :: SUN Binary Code License

License :: The Open Content License

Not known

I have not had the time to check these

License :: Aladdin Free Public License (AFPL)
License :: DFSG approved
License :: Eiffel Forum License (EFL)
License :: Voxel Public License (VPL)
License :: WTFPL
License :: Freeware (check text, probably similar to public domain)