Linux and Free Software :: I wonder if this is even legal?

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'Linux XP' is a Linux distribution that was released to imitate the "Windows XP" environment and help Windows users feel at home and attract more Window s users to this project. The current version of Linux XP is 2006 (December 19, 2005). A fee of $9 is charged after the 90th boot.

Doesn't it violate Linux licence?

If you mean GPL, no it doesn't. You can charge what you want for GPL software, as long as the source is provided and as long as it remains under GPL. The user has the option to go elsewhere for software if the charge is not to his liking.

You might also consider the possibility that not all the software included in this distro is open source. It might have commercial applications included.

In any case, I don't think that nag is going to remain very long. It's exactly this sort of marketing annoyance that caused a lot of people to switch from windows to linux in the first place.

Quote (mikshaw @ Sep. 25 2006,11:27)

You might also consider the possibility that not all the software included in this distro is open source. It might have commercial applications included.

That just sounds so... unbeliveable.

Linux software. Not free?

Anyway Linux that looks like Windows is not a good thing.
People who want to use it think it as a 'Free Windows' which is THE wrong way to think..

Excluding any commercial/shareware software that might be added (Suse did that for quite a while before releasing OpenSuse), the software is still "free" in the sense that the source code of any GPL'd software is available for modification, redistribution, and unrestricted personal use. The term "free", as applied to this software, is not necessarily "free of charge". However, due to its open nature, the same software can be obtained free of charge in other places. The user has the choice of looking elsewhere, and there are hundreds of good distros available that include the same software at no charge.

I have no idea what the $9 is for, so i'm just speculating. It could be there to cover the cost of licensing proprietary windows-compatibility software.

If you're curious you can still torrent it for free like I did.

edit: Now I see you're talking about the product key part. Well, that distro isn't the first one to do that. It's interesting to watch the Linspire/Freespire thing. I doubt that people will have a lot of interest in a Linux 'XP Clone'.

I have tested Windows Vista and I think that next year will be a great time to try and convert Windows users to Linux because Vista is different enough that they'll need to re-learn a little about how to navigate the desktop.

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