4.6. Licensing Models
- GPL guarantees the following freedoms (as in free speech, not free beer)
- You can run the program as you wish for any purpose
- You can study the source code and change it to do what you want
- You can make copies and distribute them
- You can distribute modified versions
- Derivative work inherits license (mistermed virus nature of GPL)
- Linking is considered derivative work in GPL but not in Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL)
-> GNU libc is most prominent LGPLd program - "Open Source" licenses usually omit the fourth freedom from list above (Mozilla license MPL)
- BSD style licenses have no such derivative work clause and thus cannot prevent "misuse" of software (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD)
- Because of so many licenses all dubbed "open source", check which freedoms they really entail
4.5. Origin of Free Software | 1. Embedded Linux Training course | 4.7. Can Linux handle real-time requirements? | |||
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