Licensing Question for SUSE Linux

nickadeemus2002 · 11-24-2004, 12:29 PM

Good afternoon everyone. Wanted to ask a simple question. I have SUSE Pro 9.1 and 9.2 installed on two different boxes. My friend wanted to try SUSE, so I installed a version on his system for free. He wanted to pay me, but I declined. This got me to thinking. If I accepted money for installing my SUSE distro on someone elses system, would I be violating any licensing terms? I know Linux is "free" software in the sense that the source code is transparents and can be altered. If I were to make copies of my distros and sold them for a fee, would that be illegal?

XavierP · 11-24-2004, 12:45 PM

As long as you only charge the price of creating the copies (cost of cds + time taken) and not for the distro itself, you'll be fine.

nickadeemus2002 · 11-24-2004, 01:10 PM

Thank you for the quick response. I thought SUSE was GPL. Is this still correct? I went to their new site (with novell) and couldn't find any licensing information about the release. The old www.suse.com website had the terms and conditions for use, which included terms under the GPL. I am not trying to make money from copying the distribution. I am only interested in making SUSE and Linux ubiquitous. Once again, thanks for the feedback.

JaseP · 11-24-2004, 03:02 PM

SuSE is actually a combination of GPL and non-GPL software.

Formerly, they had kept their YAST2 tool as proprietary. They have since GPL'd it.

But their distro MAY contain proprietary code,... so be very carefull in terms of what you install on someone else's box...

I believe that there is an ISO of SuSE 9.1 Pro which is now 100% GPL available.

As far as SuSE 9.2,... read the license terms that you got when you acquired it,... I'm sure it will state that it is a combination of GPL and non-GPL licenses...

J.W. · 11-25-2004, 12:03 AM

If you want to charge a fee for your time, that's perfectly OK. If you will be performing this kind of work on a reasonably frequent basis, and you really want to help promote Suse, I'd suggest that you buy a copy of Suse on behalf of your client, add the cost to your fee, and leave the copy of Suse with your client. Alternatively you could just ask your client to purchase Suse in advance. Good luck with it either way, and welcome to LQ -- J.W.