Free Software Licenses --- Re: Webmin at InstallFest

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On Mon, 2003-09-29 at 19:28, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> On 29 Sep 2003, Bart Garst wrote:
>=20
> > I checked out Webmin today and I think it would be a good thing to
> > install (or have as an option). It's released under the BSD License
> > (http://www.webmin.com/intro.html). Is this a problem? I'm not familiar
> > with that license.
>=20
> BSD Licenses are open source. Many parts of Linux distributions are BSD
> licensed. (Also, X11/MIT and Apache licenses are very similar to BSD
> licenses.)

For the record, BSD licenses are also Free Software Licenses. So
eventhough us GPL folk may gripe that we prefer the GPL, certainly BSD
licenses are Free Software. As are X11/MIT and friends.

If you ever question a license a good source of reference is....

GPL Compatiable Free Software Licenses:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses

NON GPL Compatiable Free Software Licenses:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLIncompatibleLicenses

Licenses to watch out for (they often claim to be part of the community
but are NOT Free Software)
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#NonFreeSoftwareLicense

You might ask.. "Why distinguish between GPL Compatible and
Incompatiable?" There is a very practical reason. Look at Sourceforge
or any other major repository of Free Software. Generally 75% to 90% of
it is licensed under the GNU GPL. If a GPL Incompatible license is used
that means you are by default locking out using 75% to 90% of the code
that already exists in the community. This would appear to be a foolish
choice. :)


--=20
Derek Neighbors
GNU Enterprise
http://www.gnuenterprise.org
derek@gnue.org

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