How can a company like RedHat charge money to download "their" version of Linux? "Their" version is using OPENSOURCE as it's primary code. Isn't OpenSource free? Isn't it illegal, or sue-able to claim it as your own and sell it for money?
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AFAIK, the only thing that is open source and not chargeable is the os itself. any extras they put in it, they are able to charge for. correct me if i am wrong, but i think that is how SuSE has been able to be charging all this time
I just never really looked into Linux before. I knew that it was open source, but I didn't realize companies could charge money for the "tiny tid-bits" they added on. I should have realized this I guess...
But the enterprising edition is still based on the FREE OpenSource code. Damn multi-million dollar companies, they can get away with anything.
Most companies do not charge for their ditros. They only take donations and charge for packaged sets. But, there are a few who charge for them, like RedHat's Enterprise Edition, and Linspire.
I just never really looked into Linux before. I knew that it was open source, but I didn't realize companies could charge money for the "tiny tid-bits" they added on. I should have realized this I guess...
But the enterprising edition is still based on the FREE OpenSource code. Damn multi-million dollar companies, they can get away with anything.
You can't really blame a company for trying to make money. If they don't make money they won't be around long. At least RedHat's fees are reasonable and easy to figure out unlike Microsoft. There are certainly alternatives to Redhat. You can get Fedora which is basically RedHat. You can get Debian, Slackware, Gentoo or a ton of other free ones. Some are a little behind RedHat/SUSE in driver support but work well. You can also get FreeBSD as an alternative although it tends to be harder for a newbie.
I know you're right mairving, I just assumed that Linux was something that had stayed free, and that Big Businesses hadn't been able to get their hands on it and start charging $$$. I was just a little disappointed when I started looking into all the different versions, and found that there were a few charging money for downloads. However I do agree with the websites that ask for donations.
There is absolutely nothing, repeat nothing, in the GPL(the license for the linux kernel) which forbids anyone from charging money for products based on software licensed under the GPL.
The main requirements of the GPL are that any product derived from GPL code must also be licensed under the GPL if distributed and that the source code for any GPL'd product be made freely available to anyone for a cost not more than reasonble costs of distribution. The GPL was intended to "free" the code, not provide no cost software. The code is free in that anyone can have access to it for, at most, nominal cost and any improvements on the code must be contributed back to the community and made freely available to others. This is typically referred to as free as in freedom, not free as in beer.
Just for the record.....SuSE offers a free live CD that work much like Knoppix....for free. I buy the package deal and the support that come with it because I like how easy it makes things for me. The kernel is free in linux..it's all the extra stuff that allows them to charge.
Virtually everything in suse is under the GPL or BSD license. Yast used to be proprietary but that was GPLd last year by suse. Suse does contain sun java which most distros refuse to include because it under a license from sun which includes certain restrictions incompatible with the GPL.
Again, there is nothing in the GPL or BSD licenses prohibiting sale for $$.
Open source distros charge for service, i.e. tech support, security updates, etc. Also, the companies' trademarks and trade names are proprietary, i.e. you can't use them without permission. Most don't care but redhat sure does. There are several distros that take redhat enterprise edition, remove all the references to rh and the rh logos and redistribute the distro under another name. I think a distro called whitebox is one. And there's not a fricken thing that rh can do about it since there distro is strictly open source.
Suse's position is less clear but has softened considerably since they were acquired by novel. I believe suse allows you to distribute their cds as long as you don't charge anything for it, i.e. noncommercial distribution. Suse's liveval cd is just that, a limited evaluation copy of their distro which cannot be installed to your hard drive. Traditionally, suse has been one of the jerkier companies when it comes to trying to force you to pay for the distro by including certain propietary elements such as yast and sun's java. They don't have isos of their full distro for download but you can do an ftp install of it if you have broadband and a good working knowledge of linux. You won't get sun's java with it which causes a lot of problems and it's almost impossible to install afterwards because they play a real hide and seek game with their linking of java to various apps in very nonstandard ways. In short, suse does everything possible within the limits of the GPL to make it difficult to get their product w/o paying.
Credible service is the main thing that open source providers sell, something very important to enterprise customers which is where they make their money and what they really charge for.
12-01-2004, 12:02 AM
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