Final Survey Question: If I buy Linux Software, how many PCs can I install it on?

[slickwilly321]

:confused:

Dear Linux Users,

I have 3 final questions for you. I haven't been able to find this answer anywhere on Red Hat's or any other Linux site and so maybe you can clear this up for me.

Question 1: If I download [workstation] Linux for free from any Linux Company or from any website that offers it, can I LEGALLY install that single software package onto all 2500 user workstations at "XYZ" or (wherever) company that I'm working at (without buying ANY OTHER licenses)?


Question 2: Can I do this for Linux Server software (e.g. install the same copy of Red Hat server software onto 200 servers)?


Question 3: I was at Red Hat's site recently. I saw that they say they fall under GNU GPL license, but then they have their own multi-page license agreement too.

a.) Does one license cancel out the other?
b.) How can Red Hat make their license more restrictive when they belong to the GPL license to begin with?

Any help provided would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Slick

[Russ356]

I would say yes, but this is just from know the GNU, You may want to wait for a more valid answer, I believe yes though.

[root.veg]

Unfortunately for a definitive answer, you'd have to check the individual licenses of each software package within Red Hat.

However, the vast majority of the software packages that make up Red Hat are free software, and a lot of it (a majority again I think) will be GPL-ed too. So ask yourself - what packages in a Red Hat boxed-set aren't Free Software? (I don't know personally, just trying to clarify the issue).

If an individual software package is Free Software (eg BSD-style licensed or GPL-ed) then you can use it and copy it wherever and however you like. That after all is the *point* of Free Software. Just be prepared in the case of GPL-ed software to give the source code to anyone you redistribute the binaries to.

I don't think you'll find that there's much special about "server" software on linux compared to "workstation" software (think Apache, Samba, Sendmail - all Free Software)... that's a distinction that proprietary software companies would like to keep in place to justify higher prices...

[Atealtha]

you would have to study both licenses yourself to figure that out

[bwkaz]

If you install any proprietary packages, then study the license of the appropriate package before installing it willy-nilly.

But if everything is GPL'ed, then you will have no problems. Even the "be prepared to distribute source" argument doesn't really apply (at least, not the way the FSF reads their own license) within an organization -- they don't view multiple installs inside one organization as "redistribution". Which makes a bit of sense, given that under US law anyway, corporations are treated as individuals.

And the free download edition should be installable everywhere with no problems. After all, what's the difference between downloading it at each computer, then installing, and downloading once and installing onto each machine? Not much -- the only real difference is, in the former scenario you're incurring more of a cost to the distro's ISP (assuming they pay by bandwidth used).

For question 3, that depends on the terms of the licenses. It may be that the RH license only covers certain pieces of software (like the up2date tool, or something), or it only covers usage of the RedHat Network or something like that. I haven't read it, so I don't know. Read it for the definitive answer.

Licenses can coexist, too -- if the RH license is compatible with the GPL, then both of them may apply, if the package in question was released under both licenses. Chances are, though, that RH is using GNU tools for the vast majority of everything, and GNU tools are released solely under the GPL. The RH license specifically does not apply to them.

[root.veg]

Thanks, bwkaz... Didn't know that bit about multiple installs not counting as re-distribution if it's within the same organisation.

[slickwilly321]

Thanks for the info!