Advanced Server free?
Matt Hanley
MHanley at cxtec.com
Fri Jun 11 14:12:15 UTC 2004
> So, a more correct statement would be that the RHEL product
> line is not free, but is available on a subscription fee
> basis. However, currently the sources are freely available
> until RH decides that they won't be as is their right under the GPL.
This comes up now and then and should be in a FAQ somewhere, based on the
number of incorrect responses I see.
RHEL is covered under the GPL. The GPL covers distributing, copying, and
modifying - but not running. When you purchase RHEL from Red Hat you are
also agreeing to a second license, namely the Red Hat End User License
Agreement. This license says that if you *run* RHEL you must pay for - at a
minimum - the RHN. Unfortunately, you cannot just purchase RHN for ES/AS
(which is extremely convenient for RH).
So that being said, you can give away as many copies as you like and you can
install as many copies as you like - but you can only run the copies you
have paid for. If you receive a copy of RHEL from someone other then RH,
the RH EULA is not in play. You can run it, but you won't have
updates/support.
-matt
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