Project
If you just want to learn to use open source projects, you can skip this section (Learn better ^_^), but if you want to integrate open source projects in your product (whether it is open source or commercial), you must understand the license agreement.
The license of open source projects can be divided into three main categories:
Osi-approved Open Source: An open source licensing protocol approved by the Open source Organization (www.opensource.org). As you often see Apache,gpl,lgpl,mit Licence, all belong to the Osi-approved authorization protocol, one of the requirements of OSI is the free distribution of binaries and source code.
Other/proprietary License: Other, proprietary licensing agreements. Refers to the source code provided by the software author, but there are other restrictions on the distribution and release of the software.
Public domain: Common domains authorization. Authorize the software as a public domain, which means that the author completely abandons copyright and anyone can use it.
Most open source projects are owned by osi-approved Open Source, following a simple introduction to common license:
For business-friendly license, these license retain copyright, but not only free modification, free redistribution, but also allow commercial use, allow business to modify the software code not published after the change (to get commercial products do not worry about the ^_^). These License include: Apache license,artistic License,bsd License,python license,xwindows license,zope and so on.
The GPL License, allows free modification, free republishing, but requires that the code must also comply with the GPL. This is not a GPL-license project can not use the GPL license source code. This delegation of authority greatly limits the means to profit from open source and is therefore a business unfriendly authorization. The GPL-licensed projects are particularly numerous, including Linux, GNOME, KDE, GCC, and so on. LGPL License compares the GPL with looser, allowing commercial code to link LGPL project libraries.
MPL License allows free republishing and free modification, but requires that the modified code be copyrighted to the originator of the software. This authorization maintains the interest of commercial software, which requires that the software be modified for free contributions to the software. In this way, all the code around the software copyright is focused on the launch of the development of human hands. But MPL is allowed to modify, free use. MPL software is not required for links.
There are also some open source projects have multiple protocols, such as MySQL (well-known open source database) at the same time have commercial License and GPL License, if it is a GPL project, then you can use MySQL for free, However, the use of MySQL in commercial software is to buy commercial license.
In short, when you are ready to use open source projects in a commercial project, you need to read its license to see if it can be used for free. (Not free, it is estimated that the boss does not agree with the ^_^) from a commercial point of view, of course, the choice of business friendly License better, such as Apache License,bsd License,mpl, and LGPL is also available. In our focus on the Java domain, the choice is still relatively large (see in future content).
The content source of this page is from Internet, which doesn't represent Alibaba Cloud's opinion;
products and services mentioned on that page don't have any relationship with Alibaba Cloud. If the
content of the page makes you feel confusing, please write us an email, we will handle the problem
within 5 days after receiving your email.
If you find any instances of plagiarism from the community, please send an email to:
info-contact@alibabacloud.com
and provide relevant evidence. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days.
