On 8/31/06, Mitul Limbani <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Trolltech ==> charges Fee for using their QT library in your code.
True only if you're selling your own code as well. If your app is free then their library is also free.
RH ==> Enterprise Linux is not for free. SuSE ==> Enterprise Linux is not for free. Novell ==> Groupware, etc etc are not for free. So point being they still sell software as product and also charge hefty fee for support, Just that their licensing terms are relaxed. (Similar to Microsoft or any other proprietory vendor does)
The RHEL license: http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_rha_eula.html SLED license: www.novell.com/licensing/eula/sled_10/sled_10_english.pdf The license is infact the crucial difference. According to the license one is free to copy, modify and redistribute the OS or its components, but not commercially. So I'm free to download/borrow a copy of RHEL and make zillion copies to install on zillion servers. But if I want support from RH, I'll need to buy a subscription for every machine i've installed RH on. It looks like they're selling a product (the package of OS+support) but in essence they're charging for the support only. That's a vital difference from any proprietary software. The SLED agreement however does mention "you must get a license for every copy installed". So you're right on that one. Infact they even have the following clause: "Novell reserves all rights not expressly granted to You. You may not: (1) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software except and only to the extent it is expressly permitted by applicable law or the license terms accompanying a component of the Software; or (2) transfer the Software or Your license rights under this Agreement, in whole or in part." And an oops about Novell, I actually meant the distro they have, which infact is Suse ;-) Regards, -- Siddhesh Poyarekar http://siddhesh.tk http://siddhesh.phpnet.us -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
