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Re:beer versus freedom (how Mandriva works, AFAIK)

Posted by: rickstockton on April 29, 2005 07:42 AM
Yes, standard members such as myself now get an extra CD for proprietary Drivers and Plugins. "PowerPack" and "PowerPack+" include some licensed-for-money Applications, at higher costs of purchase or membership. My Version, the Download edition plus pre-built Driver Modules and Config files as present in the "PowerPack", is made available exclusively for standard members. (It will never be available as a public Download, but it's not a full "PowerPack".)

AFAIK, MCC and all of its underlying tools (urpmi, the "drakxtools" packages, etc.) are licensed under the GPL. For example, I'm looking right now at the drakxtools-10.2-24.mdk Source RPM download page. It says "Copyright: GPL" (i.e., the GPL provides license terms for Mandriva's and anyone else's Source Code in this package). Mandriva really DOES Walk the Walk!

You're 100% correct that anyone could make an "Old-Man_Drivver" near-duplicate Distro from Mandriva's GPL Source files, just like the "Pink Tie" distribution available from one of the "Cheap Distros on CD" distributors, and the others which you mentioned. I think it's very FLOSS friendly that Mandriva doesn't make these people jump through the hoops which that other Company does (i.e., the romve-all-the-trademarked-stuff-hassle).

(Rick, now logged in instead of being Anonymous.)

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