Can Open source software be used for corporate use?
Hello all. I marvel if the open source software can be used for corporate use. Does anyone know if there are any restrictions? “I request to send a list of some open-source software by the TI office for the company I work for to approve, but she referred me to ensure that it was corporate usage goes initially required. Seems to imply that all open source software was available for corporate use, but would be for the user. Who really knows?
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5 Responses to “Can Open source software be used for corporate use?”
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Your best bet is to check the licensing the software comes with. Most open-source (but mind you, not all) comes with a GPL license which states you can do whatever you want with it, even charge cash, as long as you pass the same rights to the users .
always read the end user agreement
http://www.answers.com/topic/openoffice-org
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Office-suites/OpenOfficeorg-Premium.shtml
pg
that depends on each particular piece of software that you use, it can vary from one software piece to the next, so do your home work other wise the corporation could be turned in for by illegal software. Check eula’s before you download anything for corporate use. Personal uses and corporate use ids differant because the corporation makes a profit from what it does.
Hi yes open source is in use for everyone !
What i reckon they were asking is the software up to scratch to be able to cope with the tasks ?
There are no limitations, hence the name open source the key word being open – meaning open to everyone.
Be very careful thou as all open source software is beta stages I.E test
so personally i would not use it for corporate use myself & would never suggest it to a company to use as it has not been standard
Bottom line: Open Source software is software which you are required, should you deliver it, to deliver the source code with it so anyone may modify it as they please. Should you make modifications, should you deliver them and they are dependent on Open Source code — that is they won’t run lacking it, then you are required to deliver them as Open Source. Among other things, you are NOT required to deliver Open Source Code if you were not going to deliver it anyhow. Also, use of GPL code does NOT mean, though it is distributed under copyright laws, that you have the right to use copyrighted and trademarked equipment. Download the Mozilla firefox source code to a computer at home, unarchive it and type “make browser” then read the thought that comes at the end of your recompilation. If you tweak the code they would rather you rebrand it.
The demo versions of Quake, Doom, Quake II and Wolfenstein are open source. That does NOT mean you can just deliver the cames as you please. Sports meeting like Nexuiz and PRBoom (a.k.a FreeDoom) use the engine lacking infringing on character designs or other proprietary stuff.
Open Source and Free Software has been used in Commerce shops since they got their start — in a way it’s the Proprietary stuff which is the latecomer to the feast. I first learned vi which I use on Linux some 3 years before the Linux kernel was even written. Of course Open Source can be used for Corporate Use, within reason.
Groklaw is a small bit more than a “let’s dump on SCO” site. And they have one informative article which just went up this morning:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?tale=20100403103524185#comments