GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide by Graham Williams
Desktop Survival Project Home Preface Advocacy History Distributions Installation Basic Survival Wajig Audio AbiWord APM Backup Bash Booting Cameras CD Chinese ChRoot Clock Commercial Conference Management Configuration CRON CVS Databases DIA Directories Disks Documentation DVD Email Eye of Gnome Evolution File Systems Firewalls Floppy Disks Fonts Ghemical GIMP Glade Gnome GnuCash Gnumeric GQView Graphics Groups HTML Editors ImageMagick Initialisations on Booting Java KDE Kernels Keyboard Konqueror KVM Switch LaTeX Log System Login Magellan Mathematics Memory Modems Mounting Devices MS/Windows Music MySQL Nautilus Networks NFS NT File System OpenOffice.org Oracle Packages Partitions Passwords PDF Photos PPP Presentations Printing Python R Remote Desktops Rsync Samba Scanning Science Security SH File System Sketch Spell SPlus Spruce SSH SUDO Subversion Swap Themes USB Video Virtualization Web Word X XML Sample Installations Troubleshooting Index

Software Licensing

Free software is licensed to allow users the freedom to decide when and how they will use the product. There is no requirement for the added burden and cost of proprietary software in tracking software licences and usage. Breaching copyright law, even often unwittingly, can expose a business to litigation and fines.

The GNU General Public License (the GPL) is a license developed to enshrine the users rights and freedoms with regard software made available under this license. If you agree to the GPL then you do not lose any rights you would have had if you hadn't agreed to it. The GPL strictly increases the things you are legally allowed to do! Indeed, the act of running the Program is not restricted in any way. From a commercial point of view, you may charge a fee for transferring a copy of the software and you may offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee from those whom you supply the software to.