wiki:UserGuide/OpenSource

Version 4 (modified by Gavin, 14 years ago) (diff)

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Open Source

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GnuMims is released and developed under the GNU AGPL open source license.

In short open source software is good for everyone.
It provides an environmnet more likely to produce better software through:

  • Large scale peer review.
  • Developers and users are empowered to fault find and repair under open standards which leads to faster development and reduced bug levels which increases reliability.
  • Proven techniques may be re-used, without having to re-invent the wheel, again speeding development.
  • Software applications are tools and developed because they are needed, if we have a need there will almost certainly exist others that have the same need with whom we may collaborate.
  • The organisations and people most involved with the product are those with the greatest knowledge of the product and therefore the best option for efficient supply of services, customisation and support.

The GNU AGPL allows anyone to use, share and freely work with the software according to the conditions in the full license document.

Which basically requires you extend the same freedoms to others.
You may not sell or include the software as closed source software.
You may however sell and charge a price for an open source copy, services, support or customisation.
Nothing on this site is legal advise, please see the full license document and seek independent legal advise.

So how do I satisfy this GNU Affero GPL?

The GNU AGPL requires you to make the source code available to your network users.
So how do you do this?
Easy if you are running an un-modified version just leave the link to www.gnumims.org on the header image intact. This will allow your users to find the community site and with it the source code. If you are running a modified version you are welcome to use our subversion repository, ask us about a custom branch or your changes may be included in the main trunk. If you don't want to do either of those then create a link in your modified version to your modified source, either way you are required to make the source code available to your network users.

See GNU.org for more details.