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Re: Debian based GNU/Solaris: pilot program



Erast Benson wrote:
 btw, Solaris 10 is absolutely free available for
download, so, one could try to install and see.


Sun Microsystem's Solaris 10 binary release is available without fee, but it's not free as in Free Software (despite that the underlying source code is largely licensed under a weak-copyleft free software license, the CDDL).

The Solaris 10 binaries license has some pretty fascinating usage restrictions, among other things (the normal download is a 90 day demo version with forced registration for real use, and it's non-transferable).

You may want to read http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/popup.jsp?info=17 and http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/licensing/sla.xml to get a better understanding of the legal terms around Sun's Solaris 10 release.

The relevant part is:

"In order to use the Solaris 10 Operating System for perpetual commercial use, each system running the Solaris 10 OS must have an entitlement to do so. The Entitlement Document is delivered to you either with a new Sun system, from Sun Services as part of your service agreement, or via e-mail when you register your systems through the Sun Download Center. Customers who did not receive an Entitlement Document with their new Sun system or through their service agreement must also register each system with Sun. In addition, if you install the Solaris 10 OS on additional systems, you must register those systems to receive an additional Entitlement Document.

The registration process to receive an Entitlement Document is part of the Solaris 10 download process, with the Entitlement Document being returned to you via e-mail. For this reason, YOU MUST PROVIDE A WORKING E-MAIL ADDRESS AS PART OF YOUR SUN DOWNLOAD CENTER ACCOUNT. If you fail to do so, you will not receive an Entitlement Document and will only have the right to evaluate the Solaris 10 OS for 90 days."

Stuff like

"(c) You may not rent, lease, lend or encumber Software."

"(d) Unless enforcement is prohibited by applicable law, you may not decompile, or reverse engineer Software."

"(f) You may not publish or provide the results of any benchmark or comparison tests run on Software to any third party without the prior written consent of Sun."

"(g) Software is confidential and copyrighted."

"(h) Unless otherwise specified, if Software is delivered with embedded or bundled software that enables functionality of Software, you ma y not use such software on a stand-alone basis or use any portion of such software to interoperate with any program(s) other than Softwar e."

"(i) Software may contain programs that perform automated collection of system data and/or automated software updating services. System da ta collected through such programs may be used by Sun, its subcontractors, and its service delivery partners for the purpose of providing you with remote system services and/or improving Sun's software and systems."

from the SLA's section on restrictions does not really sound like something I'd be interested in getting my hands on, gratis or not.

cheers,
dalibor topic



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