SuSE 9.0 has been released in stores, yet I can only find their LiveEval edition on their ftp servers! Isn''t that against the license agreement for the redistribution of linux? I can''t wait to try SuSE9 out, but I don''t want to buy it (especially since I already have 8.2). Where do I get it? BTW, do you think I should upgrade my system when I get SuSE or reinstall from scratch? The official zorx website

Actualy if they didn''t offer a free download it would be in violation. You can download all the latest versions of linux from suse to redhat for free. It''s the great thing about linux. So feel free to download from their ftp servers.

That''s what I thought, but they don''t have SuSE 9.0 on their ftp servers. They only have up to 8.2, except for the LiveEval version (which is sort of a testing version which boots directly off the CD).

The official zorx website

No it is not against the license. What the license says is that those they distributed (sold) the binary to must also get the source at no additional charges and cannot be prevented from further redistributing it (under that same license).

Nothing says that they have to give it all away for free. Nor do they even have to make their product available to the public at large.

If I distribute GPL'd software for a fee, am I required to also make it available to the public without a charge?


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[edited by - Fruny on October 28, 2003 11:28:52 PM]

Actually I think there was a case a few years ago when HP sold GPL code for on the order of $20,000 or similar.

If I recall correctly some kind souls went out, bought the product and made it publically available.

Try peer-2-peer service to get SuSE 9 dude, often find recent linux / etc binaries hosted there. I think I saw a bit torrent link the other day, but I''m afraid I don''t recall where.

Hunt around.

quote: Original post by Shadow Mint
Actually I think there was a case a few years ago when HP sold GPL code for on the order of $20,000 or similar.

If I recall correctly some kind souls went out, bought the product and made it publically available.

Which is why in practice it doesn''t work trying to sell software under the GPL - you can only expect to sell it once, after that there''s no reason why the person you sold it to can''t resell it for less than what you charged them - and that''s why most business models around the GPL consist of selling support/services related to the software, not the software itself.

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Alexandre Moura

quote: Original post by Shadow Mint

Try peer-2-peer service to get SuSE 9 dude, often find recent linux / etc binaries hosted there. I think I saw a bit torrent link the other day, but I''m afraid I don''t recall where.

Hunt around.

*That* would be illegal, because the SuSE distribution includes a lot of non-free code (such as Yast, possibly the Nvidia and ATI drivers, and other things).


Hope this helps.

quote: Original post by Fruny
No it is not against the license. What the license says is that those they distributed (sold) the binary to must also get the source at no additional charges ...

I think they can charge for the sources as well, although there is some clause that it mustn''t be "unreasonable".

I found some information about it on LinuxISO.org. There''s quite a bit of information about where to download it and there''s some discussion on page five of that post and in this post about the legality of it.

The official zorx website

They will generally put up a very slightly reduced version after it''s been in stores for about a month. It was the same with version 8.2. The only difference between the CD/DVD and the ftp version is that the non-free software is obviously not included in the ftp download. Give it a few (~2) weeks'' time and you''ll be fine. SuSE 8.2 still does pretty much everything you need it to if you upgrade the kernel. (I''ve been using 8.2 since the ftp release)

- JQ