On Wednesday 03 July 2002 12.05, Keith Winston wrote:
From my understanding, UL will be licensed per *server*, not per seat. This is reasonable and makes perfect sense.
As I understand it there will be separate licenses for each of the vendors. I assume SuSE will follow the licensing for SLES which is per service/support contract, not per installation. If you want to install twice, go ahead, if you want support for both, pay for both.
One of the attractions of Linux is the GPL. If you can install a set of core programs on an entire network of computers without worrying about licensing costs and tracking, you have a big win. If all you do is lower the costs, it is not such a big win.
I ditched windows because it was bad software, not because it was expensive, or had restrictive licenses. Back then I was only barely aware software even had a license. It was something I just clicked OK to and proceeded to ignore. The main attraction of gnu/linux is and will always be quality. If linux hadn't been any good the license wouldn't have mattered, few people except hobbyists would have used it. We'd all be running windows or *BSD (why did linux "win" over *BSD? I can't imagine it was because of the licensing) waiting with baited breath for the Hurd to become usable. With a license you're essentially buying a support contract. If you want support for a hundred machines you are always going to have to pay for a hundred machines, regardless of the solution you choose. Some pay directly with cash to third party support, some pay in salaries to internal staff. But all pay. There is *no* free meal. The difference linux introduces is that you can choose the DIY method of having your own staff, or tendering competitive bidding. Maybe Caldera's license removes that by forcing customers to pay Caldera, I don't know, but so far SuSE hasn't, and I haven't seen any signs outside of DEP's and TRB's websites to suggest otherwise. Elx, Lycoris, Xandros and Lindows are all desktop distributions aimed at conquering the home user market. most people have only one computer at home, and even if there are more, at least a few of those dists have "family licensing" allowing you to install on all of them anyway. So while the license isn't particularly agreeable, it's probably irrelevant for most people. Noone is ever going to install Lindows in a 10.000 computer server farm. regards Anders -- `When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'