On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 09:24:28AM +0300, Shachar Shemesh wrote: > Uri Even-Chen wrote: > > >Hi people, > > > >Today I had a meeting with people at a software company. We talked > >about Linux, and they said that today there are versions of Linux which > >are not Free Software. > That is true. The moment "Linux" means "A Linux distribution", there is > nothing stopping you from bundling in non-free applications, and > charging a fee for the collection. Suse did that for a long time, before > Novel opened Yast. > > They said that you buy a license for each > >computer, and it's not legal to use it without a license. They referred > >specifically to Red Hat. > Actually, RedHat are free, last time I checked. Either the company or > its local subsidiery (I suspect the former) are delibiratly murking the > difference between the software, the RedHat trademark and their support, > so that they can cause people to think like the people you mention. > > RedHat is free software, but their support services are given > per-computer and must be bought, as well as the use of their trademark > (for some strange definition of that word).
And this very definition might be quite significant regarding what you can or can't do with the software. Isn't it? I talked to a rep a few months ago, and he told me I can't e.g. purchase a license (or subscription, or whatever it's called) for one year, install a machine with it, then continue using it for more than one year, because of this trademark thing. That I will (theoretically) need to chase each and every mention of any of their trademarks, in any of the files on the system, and remove it. I didn't feel like arguing, and did not ask a laywer, but I really don't know if he has any substance in what he said. You might find some relevant info on e.g. centos.org. They keep writing there, tens of times, "a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor" instead of RedHat, for this very reason. But they did not change every occurence of RedHat in the sources themselves, as far as I could see. -- Didi ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
