Ubuntu compatibility with Debian?
David Teague
teague at jackson.main.nc.us
Mon May 9 12:55:28 UTC 2005
From: "James Wilkinson" <ubuntu at westexe.demon.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 8:26 AM
Subject: Re: Ubuntu compatibility with Debian?
>
> David Teague wrote:
> > This is not true. The entire distro is (as it must be) GPL'd so I
> > can fetch the sources and do exactly the same thing for that distro
> > that you describe for Ubuntu.
>
> Hmm. I don't think that's right, either.
>
> You're right in as much as open-source software has to come with the
> source code to modify it (freedom as in speech). This has nothing to
> do with whether the distribution as a whole is free as in free beer. [1]
>
> But very few distributions are entirely GPL. Apache, for example, comes
> with a non-GPL compatible license. BSD-derived software tends to have
> BSD licenses. Ubuntu, which is undoubtedly free-as-in-beer, does not
> give you the freedom to modify all its packages' compile options,
> because it includes non-free drivers to which we do not have the source
> code.
>
> Some distributions (Fedora) don't include non-free software: you can
> modify all its packages. Yet it isn't entirely GPL.
James
Yup, I stand (or rather I sit) corrected. There are parts of
every Linux Distro that are not GPL, some are BSD,
some are Artistic License, etc. Each has its restrictions,
(such as the name issue you mention; the Perl Artistic
license requires that you make clear what you contributed)
but these licenses share this one essential thing: You can
redistribute and make derived works which you can
distribute.
There may be stuff such as install routines that are even
restricted even more. I remember Slackware getting sued
in the early days by SLS (Soft Landing Systems) for
using SLS's not-free installation routines, and Slack had
to cease and desist until it has its own routines in place.
Thanks!
David Teague, http://cs.wcu.edu/~dbt
Advocating Free Software and Double Bass tuned in fifths
www.dennismasuzzo.com; www.silviodallatorre.com
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