Is it free?

[pairustwo]

I don't completely understand the deal here. I know that the Linux kernel is freely distributed but what about packaged distributions like Red Hat. Red Hat sells its own distribution 8.0 but it is offered for download at LinuxISO.org and many other places.

Just wondering if I'm a pirate or not.

pairustwo

[sharth]

theoretically, they are selling tech support. however, they are also selling the bandwith and time that it would have taken to download the file and burn it.

It is perfectly legal to download the isos from linuxiso.org or wherever. Xandros, and Mandrake Gaming Edition would be illegal to download however, due to the fact that they contain some non-gpl software.

[Zoist]

I am surprised to see that Red Hat still provides the up2date feature for any RH user.

[root.veg]

Bottom line is, if you want to ensure you're being a good citizen you have to check out in detail what pieces of non-free software your desired distribution includes, so that you can avoid using them illegally.

You can be quite confident that the vast majority of software in any current GNU/Linux distribution is freely run-able, modify-able and redistributable (although maybe not GPL'ed). But you have to be careful about the small amount of non-free software which may be included. Some distributions have installers which clearly tell you what is non-free.

The tricky thing, I guess, would be if you wanted to download a CD ISO image which had a piece of non-free software on it. You would have to check the licence terms to see if simply copying the non-free software violates a copyright. If it only prohibits commercial use, then you would be OK.

May I suggest you try Debian? They are extremely clear on whether their packages are free software or not, and don't include non-free packages in the main distribution.