Open Source Stack Exchange
Open Source Stack Exchange

Most Popular

more tags
1500 questions
63
votes
9 answers

Why do some people refer to Linux as GNU/Linux?

In some cases I have noticed that some people say GNU/Linux instead of just Linux. Why is that so? Do both terms mean the same or is there a subtle difference?
Mnementh
  • 11,189
  • 2
  • 35
  • 79
62
votes
3 answers

Should I include license text in a single file or all source files?

Many licenses, such as Apache 2.0, have both a long and a short form. Typically, the long form is included in the repository as a single LICENSE file, and the short form is used in the actual source code. But, if you include the LICENSE file, is it…
kdopen
  • 6,967
  • 2
  • 28
  • 58
59
votes
3 answers

Open-source license to prevent commercial use?

I could really use some help picking the right license for my project. The project is already released on github under the GPLv3 license but I have been made aware that this prevents uses that I want to allow. My requirements are like this: The…
Tannin
  • 709
  • 1
  • 5
  • 5
56
votes
7 answers

Is requiring a license a violation of the GPL? Can I get around it?

At work, we use a version of GCC provided by a vendor of a proprietary OS. The vendor has modified gcc so that it will only run if it successfully acquires one of a limited number of licenses we've purchased from our license server. This seems very…
Daniel McHenry
  • 663
  • 5
  • 4
55
votes
4 answers

Security of GitHub.com

Recently some non-technical managers where I work found out that GitHub has a repository with code from "Hidden Tear" which is a ransomware application. The immediate reaction was to ban GitHub, which is something that we use extensively to get open…
Chris.Stover
  • 679
  • 1
  • 5
  • 7
51
votes
5 answers

Can there be a copyright on negative code?

This is a hypothetical question, but I am curious. Feel free to ignore it, when it seems too theoretical for you. Some people may know the situation that you implement a feature and in the end you have added like 10 lines and removed 100 and from…
allo
  • 781
  • 5
  • 9
51
votes
4 answers

Someone open-sourced an un-open-source project

Someone (Person_A) is sharing an open source project (Project_A) on GitHub. The Project_A is a decompiled version of another project (Project_B). But the original Project_B is not open source, and Project_B never granted Person_A permission to open…
Ryan
  • 649
  • 1
  • 6
  • 6
50
votes
2 answers

Is Fairphone violating the GPL with its newest Fairphone 3?

Fairphone does not provide any source code for its Fairphone 3 phone. They admit this on their website and also confirmed this to me in an email: We really appreciate your feedback and concern, but unfortunately at this point the source tree still…
Nobody
  • 613
  • 1
  • 5
  • 11
50
votes
6 answers

"GitHub Stars" is a very useful metric. But for *what*?

Users on the GitHub website are able to "star" other people's repositories, thereby saving them in their list of Starred Repos. Some people use "stars" to indicate that they like a project, other people use them as bookmarks so they can follow…
Left SE On 10_6_19
  • 1,089
  • 1
  • 8
  • 11
49
votes
3 answers

What can/should I do when I see a violation to GPL restrictions?

Some years ago, I was working on a software company that used some copyrighted JAR dependencies that they had bought from a medium-size obscure private company for a very expensive price. After some time using their JARs, I figured out that most of…
Victor Stafusa - BozoNaCadeia
  • 1,136
  • 12
  • 22
48
votes
11 answers

Is GPL "for research purposes only" self-contradictory?

So I used a piece of software which claims to be open source and is licensed under "GPL for research purposes only". As far as I know, GPL 2 and 3 are not themselves free, in sense that you can't change them and still call them GPL. Also, as far…
AndrejaKo
  • 597
  • 1
  • 4
  • 9
48
votes
4 answers

Is it legal to use GPL code in a proprietary, closed-source program by putting it in a separate, standalone program?

As we all know, the GNU General Public License (GPL) is a "copyleft" source license: which means it is designed not merely to make the code to which it is initially applied free and preserve its freedom, but moreover to "catalyze" the creation of…
The_Sympathizer
  • 581
  • 1
  • 4
  • 4
48
votes
3 answers

How to explain to users that we do this in our spare time?

Success can be painful for a FLOSS project. We now have nearly a thousand active users and many more people are becoming active contributors to our backlog/issue tracker. Note that while we're getting much more activity around discussing bugs &…
RubberDuck
  • 5,418
  • 2
  • 20
  • 33
48
votes
2 answers

What's the right way to ask if a GitHub project is maintained?

It happens all the time. You come across a useful-looking project that has few or no recent commits, many long-open issues and pull requests, and nothing is changing. How do you usually ask if the project is being maintained without sounding…
Troy
  • 581
  • 4
  • 4
47
votes
9 answers

Does open source qualify as being part of the public domain?

According to Google, Open Source is... denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. It seems to be that the product seems to be available without restrictions to the public,…
Zizouz212
  • 6,449
  • 4
  • 36
  • 75
1
2
3
…
99 100