[PLUG] Question about companies and open source applications

[Sudhanwa Jogalekar]

On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Nikhil Karkare
<nikhil.karkare at myshala.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I am part of a school, and keep meeting people who want to sell me software.
> Here is a situation that I come across regularly.
> I find people selling products based on Linux. I see them writing a
> few lines of code, customizing Gnome or KDE a bit, and using the rest
> for free from the Linux world.
> By apps I mean GCompris. These guys use gcompris apps, and don't
> mention anywhere that the apps are from GCompris. Plus, they don't
> even mention that they use Linux as an operating system! They say that
> they have no problems of viruses, no problem in virtualization. Is it
> some groundbreaking OS that has been written from scratch? I don't
> think so. Why don't they mention that they run Linux and use open
> source apps? Aren't they liable to do that?
>
> More than liability, I feel sad that since most schools don't know
> about Linux and GCompris, they are sold out on this. Linux and
> GCompris don't get the recognition that they deserve.
>


Whenever the sales people talk to you, ask them for the license
document. Whether the product is proprietary or FOSS. And ask for
source code if they say it is FOSS.

It is part of their awareness too.

There is nothing wrong in doing business of FOSS products. But, it
should be done respecting the licensing of the product/project.

And feel free to put up names of such companies who use FOSS in a
wrong way. Let people understand who are into bad business practices.

-Sudhanwa