Re: Legality of using free VMware Workstation Player for alpha and beta testing of Ubuntu?
If you are in doubt for any reason, this is where you need to work with a lawyer in your own jurisdiction to determine the legality. None of us are lawyers, so any advice we give should be taken with a grain of salt. I don't think VMware will come after you though for using it to test Ubuntu or Lubuntu. Thomas (sent without my @ubuntu.com because GMail addresses are involved) On 5/14/22 21:42, Aaron Rainbolt wrote: Thank you for taking the time to reply. This is sort of what I was thinking when I asked the question, but it's still close enough to a problem that I'm worried about it. In addition, I intend on using Ubuntu for commercial use in the not-too-distant future, so I'd rather not risk getting myself on the bad side of a multi-billion dollar company. For now, I have virt-manager, I can get Virtualbox (the open-source version, not with the proprietary add-on pack), I've got some good physical hardware, and you guys have VMware licenses for testing that part of things, so I think I'll just use what I've got for the time being, and possibly buy a VMware license at some point in the future. On Sat, May 14, 2022 at 11:21 AM John Chittum wrote: Not a lawyer, so grain of salt. Ubuntu, the OS, is not a commercial product by itself. Ubuntu is offered as a free and open source OS. If you are testing non-commercial offerings of Ubuntu, as part of community work, then it should be fine to use VMWare Player, Virtualbox, or other items for non-commercial work. Community work is, by definition, not commercial. If you are working on a commercial product, for instance, testing Ubuntu Pro features offered by Canonical, or an appliance that will be sold to a customer, then you may be in violation. If you are an employee of Canonical employed to work on the OS, things get dicey _but_ there are options available (we have licenses available). Or if you are using it as part of your job (say, you're a sys admin, and part of your job is to vet Ubuntu, and you just happen to also contribute upstream when you find a bug). Then you should talk to your workplace about getting you a license. TL:DR if it's solely community work, it shouldn't be a breach. Other things would be case by case. On Sat, May 14, 2022, 10:50 Aaron Rainbolt wrote: Thanks, that's what I needed to know! Virt-manager is more than sufficient for my needs, and I can always cough up the $150-$200 if I really want to do VMware testing. Thank you for your time and help! On Fri, May 13, 2022 at 3:51 AM Shane O'Sullivan wrote: It's a breach of the EULA. I would highly recommend installing virt-manager as a suitable alternative. On Fri 13 May 2022, 08:17 Aaron Rainbolt, wrote: I am digging deep into the world of Ubuntu development and am trying to make sure my alpha and beta testing is as effective as possible. I also don't want to cash out an arm and a leg for expensive software to do so. I've been using virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) for testing on virtual machines, and while things seem to be going well, I'd like to test on other hypervisors too for the sake of catching as many bugs as possible. VMware provides their Workstation Player product for free, *for non-commercial use.* Problem is, I can't figure out if using VMware for Ubuntu testing would be considered commercial use. One one hand, I'm not a Canonical employee, nor am I using VMware for employment purposes, so that would be non-commercial, but on the other hand, I'm helping a large enterprise build an OS that is used for commercial purposes, so that seems like commercial use. Do any of y'all do QA testing in the free version of VMware Workstation Player? Does anyone know if this is a legal use of VMware? Thank you for your help and time. (Note: I /think/ these kinds of questions are what this mailing list is for, but if I'm misguided and should have sent this to ubuntu-devel-discuss, please let me know and I'll direct these kinds of questions there instead.) -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel --
Re: Legality of using free VMware Workstation Player for alpha and beta testing of Ubuntu?
Thank you for taking the time to reply. This is sort of what I was thinking when I asked the question, but it's still close enough to a problem that I'm worried about it. In addition, I intend on using Ubuntu for commercial use in the not-too-distant future, so I'd rather not risk getting myself on the bad side of a multi-billion dollar company. For now, I have virt-manager, I can get Virtualbox (the open-source version, not with the proprietary add-on pack), I've got some good physical hardware, and you guys have VMware licenses for testing that part of things, so I think I'll just use what I've got for the time being, and possibly buy a VMware license at some point in the future. On Sat, May 14, 2022 at 11:21 AM John Chittum wrote: > Not a lawyer, so grain of salt. > > Ubuntu, the OS, is not a commercial product by itself. Ubuntu is offered > as a free and open source OS. If you are testing non-commercial offerings > of Ubuntu, as part of community work, then it should be fine to use VMWare > Player, Virtualbox, or other items for non-commercial work. Community work > is, by definition, not commercial. > > If you are working on a commercial product, for instance, testing Ubuntu > Pro features offered by Canonical, or an appliance that will be sold to a > customer, then you may be in violation. If you are an employee of Canonical > employed to work on the OS, things get dicey _but_ there are options > available (we have licenses available). Or if you are using it as part of > your job (say, you're a sys admin, and part of your job is to vet Ubuntu, > and you just happen to also contribute upstream when you find a bug). Then > you should talk to your workplace about getting you a license. > > TL:DR if it's solely community work, it shouldn't be a breach. Other > things would be case by case. > > > On Sat, May 14, 2022, 10:50 Aaron Rainbolt wrote: > >> Thanks, that's what I needed to know! Virt-manager is more than >> sufficient for my needs, and I can always cough up the $150-$200 if I >> really want to do VMware testing. >> >> Thank you for your time and help! >> >> On Fri, May 13, 2022 at 3:51 AM Shane O'Sullivan >> wrote: >> >>> It's a breach of the EULA. I would highly recommend installing >>> virt-manager as a suitable alternative. >>> >>> On Fri 13 May 2022, 08:17 Aaron Rainbolt, wrote: >>> I am digging deep into the world of Ubuntu development and am trying to make sure my alpha and beta testing is as effective as possible. I also don't want to cash out an arm and a leg for expensive software to do so. I've been using virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) for testing on virtual machines, and while things seem to be going well, I'd like to test on other hypervisors too for the sake of catching as many bugs as possible. VMware provides their Workstation Player product for free, *for non-commercial use.* Problem is, I can't figure out if using VMware for Ubuntu testing would be considered commercial use. One one hand, I'm not a Canonical employee, nor am I using VMware for employment purposes, so that would be non-commercial, but on the other hand, I'm helping a large enterprise build an OS that is used for commercial purposes, so that seems like commercial use. Do any of y'all do QA testing in the free version of VMware Workstation Player? Does anyone know if this is a legal use of VMware? Thank you for your help and time. (Note: I *think* these kinds of questions are what this mailing list is for, but if I'm misguided and should have sent this to ubuntu-devel-discuss, please let me know and I'll direct these kinds of questions there instead.) -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel >>> -- >> ubuntu-devel mailing list >> ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com >> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: >> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel >> > -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
Re: Legality of using free VMware Workstation Player for alpha and beta testing of Ubuntu?
Not a lawyer, so grain of salt. Ubuntu, the OS, is not a commercial product by itself. Ubuntu is offered as a free and open source OS. If you are testing non-commercial offerings of Ubuntu, as part of community work, then it should be fine to use VMWare Player, Virtualbox, or other items for non-commercial work. Community work is, by definition, not commercial. If you are working on a commercial product, for instance, testing Ubuntu Pro features offered by Canonical, or an appliance that will be sold to a customer, then you may be in violation. If you are an employee of Canonical employed to work on the OS, things get dicey _but_ there are options available (we have licenses available). Or if you are using it as part of your job (say, you're a sys admin, and part of your job is to vet Ubuntu, and you just happen to also contribute upstream when you find a bug). Then you should talk to your workplace about getting you a license. TL:DR if it's solely community work, it shouldn't be a breach. Other things would be case by case. On Sat, May 14, 2022, 10:50 Aaron Rainbolt wrote: > Thanks, that's what I needed to know! Virt-manager is more than sufficient > for my needs, and I can always cough up the $150-$200 if I really want to > do VMware testing. > > Thank you for your time and help! > > On Fri, May 13, 2022 at 3:51 AM Shane O'Sullivan > wrote: > >> It's a breach of the EULA. I would highly recommend installing >> virt-manager as a suitable alternative. >> >> On Fri 13 May 2022, 08:17 Aaron Rainbolt, wrote: >> >>> I am digging deep into the world of Ubuntu development and am trying to >>> make sure my alpha and beta testing is as effective as possible. I also >>> don't want to cash out an arm and a leg for expensive software to do so. >>> I've been using virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) for testing on virtual machines, >>> and while things seem to be going well, I'd like to test on other >>> hypervisors too for the sake of catching as many bugs as possible. >>> >>> VMware provides their Workstation Player product for free, *for >>> non-commercial use.* Problem is, I can't figure out if using VMware for >>> Ubuntu testing would be considered commercial use. One one hand, I'm not a >>> Canonical employee, nor am I using VMware for employment purposes, so that >>> would be non-commercial, but on the other hand, I'm helping a large >>> enterprise build an OS that is used for commercial purposes, so that seems >>> like commercial use. >>> >>> Do any of y'all do QA testing in the free version of VMware Workstation >>> Player? Does anyone know if this is a legal use of VMware? >>> >>> Thank you for your help and time. >>> >>> (Note: I *think* these kinds of questions are what this mailing list is >>> for, but if I'm misguided and should have sent this to >>> ubuntu-devel-discuss, please let me know and I'll direct these kinds of >>> questions there instead.) >>> -- >>> ubuntu-devel mailing list >>> ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com >>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: >>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel >>> >> -- > ubuntu-devel mailing list > ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel > -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
Re: Legality of using free VMware Workstation Player for alpha and beta testing of Ubuntu?
Thanks, that's what I needed to know! Virt-manager is more than sufficient for my needs, and I can always cough up the $150-$200 if I really want to do VMware testing. Thank you for your time and help! On Fri, May 13, 2022 at 3:51 AM Shane O'Sullivan wrote: > It's a breach of the EULA. I would highly recommend installing > virt-manager as a suitable alternative. > > On Fri 13 May 2022, 08:17 Aaron Rainbolt, wrote: > >> I am digging deep into the world of Ubuntu development and am trying to >> make sure my alpha and beta testing is as effective as possible. I also >> don't want to cash out an arm and a leg for expensive software to do so. >> I've been using virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) for testing on virtual machines, >> and while things seem to be going well, I'd like to test on other >> hypervisors too for the sake of catching as many bugs as possible. >> >> VMware provides their Workstation Player product for free, *for >> non-commercial use.* Problem is, I can't figure out if using VMware for >> Ubuntu testing would be considered commercial use. One one hand, I'm not a >> Canonical employee, nor am I using VMware for employment purposes, so that >> would be non-commercial, but on the other hand, I'm helping a large >> enterprise build an OS that is used for commercial purposes, so that seems >> like commercial use. >> >> Do any of y'all do QA testing in the free version of VMware Workstation >> Player? Does anyone know if this is a legal use of VMware? >> >> Thank you for your help and time. >> >> (Note: I *think* these kinds of questions are what this mailing list is >> for, but if I'm misguided and should have sent this to >> ubuntu-devel-discuss, please let me know and I'll direct these kinds of >> questions there instead.) >> -- >> ubuntu-devel mailing list >> ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com >> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: >> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel >> > -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
Legality of using free VMware Workstation Player for alpha and beta testing of Ubuntu?
I am digging deep into the world of Ubuntu development and am trying to make sure my alpha and beta testing is as effective as possible. I also don't want to cash out an arm and a leg for expensive software to do so. I've been using virt-manager (QEMU/KVM) for testing on virtual machines, and while things seem to be going well, I'd like to test on other hypervisors too for the sake of catching as many bugs as possible. VMware provides their Workstation Player product for free, *for non-commercial use.* Problem is, I can't figure out if using VMware for Ubuntu testing would be considered commercial use. One one hand, I'm not a Canonical employee, nor am I using VMware for employment purposes, so that would be non-commercial, but on the other hand, I'm helping a large enterprise build an OS that is used for commercial purposes, so that seems like commercial use. Do any of y'all do QA testing in the free version of VMware Workstation Player? Does anyone know if this is a legal use of VMware? Thank you for your help and time. (Note: I *think* these kinds of questions are what this mailing list is for, but if I'm misguided and should have sent this to ubuntu-devel-discuss, please let me know and I'll direct these kinds of questions there instead.) -- ubuntu-devel mailing list ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
