Mandrake flirts with non-open source

CNET News.com ^ | December 16, 2002, 1:01 PM PT | Stephen Shankland

[Bush2000]

Mandrake flirts with non-open source

By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
December 16, 2002, 1:01 PM PT

MandrakeSoft has taken a step away from the open-source philosophy, changing license terms for a Linux-based firewall so customers that want product support may no longer install the software on as many computers as they wish. The company's new Multi Network Firewall (MNF) software is free and ships under an open-source license for those who don't need support, Paris-based MandrakeSoft said Thursday. But if customers want support, they must buy a version covered by a different, more restrictive license.

"Our goal is also to sell directly more expensive products to customers," said MandrakeSoft co-founder Gael Duval, adding that the product is still priced to undercut competitors such as Check Point Software.

"Additionally, users can download the product, try it, and if they are satisfied, purchase later a commercial license that gives them access to support," Duval said in an e-mail interview.

It's not the first time an open-source company has made philosophical adjustments for pragmatic reasons. The fervor for the collaborative-programming model has yielded to bottom-line concerns at many companies. Indeed, as the Internet mania of the late 1990s was replaced by recession pessimism, many free-lunch ideas expired.

Firewall software protects computers from undesired network traffic, such as probes by hackers. Mandrake's firewall products are part of an effort to expand into corporate software from its base of versions of Linux for desktop computers. The firewall offerings include Mandrake-written code, to which it owns the copyright, as well as software taken from the open-source domain.

The dual-license approach is similar to that used by some other open-source projects, such as the MySQL database.

Though the licenses may differ, the software is technologically identical, MandrakeSoft said. But the two licenses--the seminal General Public License (GPL) for the free version and the new MandrakeSecurity MNF Commercial License for the paid version--impose very different constraints on how the software may be used.

The unsupported, GPL version may be freely copied and changed and installed on as many computers as a customer likes. The GPL requires that any changes made to the software be published publicly if the modified version is distributed.

The commercial version may be installed on only one computer, though it supports any number of clients connecting to it. MandrakeSoft supports the product and gives faster access to updates. In addition, business partners may change the software without requiring the changes to be published.

[Bush2000]

Reality sets in ...

[Fractal Trader]

The model of open source, for better or worse, has always been to make money on support of the product, not on the source code. Mandrake's action shows no variance from that model. If you would read the article, you would see that the identical source code can still be obtained and modified under a GPL license.

This is a non-news article.

[Bush2000]

This is a non-news article.

Uhhhh...no ...

"... customers that want product support may no longer install the software on as many computers as they wish."

[Karsus]

You still have not answered my question from a few days ago.

"Microsoft again ups risk rating on IE (flaw #999,999,999,999)
Posted by Karsus to Bush2000
On News/Activism 12/13/2002 10:56 PM CST #38 of 68

That was a joke. You do know who W. Richard Stevens is, don't you? And what books he has done?"

This was in response to this post of yours

"But But But MSFT helped Al Gore invent the Interweb.

Don't quit your day job. I see fast food in your future, otherwise."


Well?

[Bush2000]

Oh, great. A stalker.

[Karsus]

No. I asked a question that would help me judge how much you know. Your inability to answer the question appears to show that, while you talk like you know a lot about computers, you really do not.

[Bush2000]

Knock yourself out:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dbooks%26field-author%3DStevens%2C%20W.%20Richard/ref%3Dpd%5Fsimart%5Fdetail/102-9559003-7032114

[Karsus]

I have his books. I read his books. I use his books as a ref.

I love the fact that someone who claims to be such a computer expert had to go to amazon.com to figure out who WRS was. I would think than any computer person worth his salt would know who he is.

[Bush2000]

I have his books. I read his books. I use his books as a ref.

Kiss his butt on your own time.

[Karsus]

Only one who has never read the best ref on TCP/IP could say that. Do you really know anything about computers? Or are you just talking like you do?

[Bush2000]

Hey, I don't have any problem whatsoever with anything MandrakeSoft wants/needs to do to remain profitable. But it's interesting to note that their licensing model precludes making unlimited copies of the software.

[Bush2000]

Only one who has never read the best ref on TCP/IP could say that

Like I care about your opinion.

[Nick Danger]

it's interesting to note that their licensing model precludes making unlimited copies of the software.

That's because they're selling support. Why the Hell they called it a license fee is beyond me. Obviously, support costs go up as you have more servers. This scheme makes you pay what amounts to a per-server support charge. It's a pricing algorithm for support, that's all.

The fact is, you can copy the software itself, because the exact same software is also available, for free, under the GPL. But you don't get to call the 800 number if you do that. No free lunch, no free technicians on the phone.

I also suspect that release from the GPL's requirement that any mods be made public was "customer input." Especially in the case of firewalls, I could see IT guys wanting to tweak things -- that damned Senior VP with the one-off German PDA he got somewhere who insists on a VPN protocol that no one supports -- and not let the world know about it.

[Fractal Trader]

That's just plain ridiculous Bushie and you know it. I worked for a client two years ago who evaluated support for Linux distributions and got quotes for 24/7 support fees at $50,000 per year. And that was only for support on a specified number of servers.

As I said, there is nothing new here at all.

[ShadowAce]

Uhhhh...no ...

"... customers that want product support may no longer install the software on as many computers as they wish."

OK. Let's see if I understand this. You claim that because Mandrake is selling support per server, that the code they distribute is no longer open-source?

BWAAAAAHHHAAAAAA!!!!!!

You really do have a reading comprehension problem, don't you?

[Karsus]

Well, do you have any experience working with computers? You never seem to answer that question.

[Bush2000]

You claim that because Mandrake is selling support per server, that the code they distribute is no longer open-source? BWAAAAAHHHAAAAAA!!!!!! You really do have a reading comprehension problem, don't you?

Where did I ever say that, doofus? Now who's got the reading comprehension problem?

[Bush2000]

Well, do you have any experience working with computers? You never seem to answer that question.

No. Never touched one. In fact, I'm not typing this message on a computer at all. Happy?

[Bush2000]

That's just plain ridiculous Bushie and you know it. I worked for a client two years ago who evaluated support for Linux distributions and got quotes for 24/7 support fees at $50,000 per year. And that was only for support on a specified number of servers. As I said, there is nothing new here at all.

Reference, please. Let's evaluate how "old" this news is.