| cartoper@gmail.com 2007-03-01, 8:11 am |
| I am currently working on developing some commercial software. I
would like to make it open source for a number of reason, I just want
to make sure I can legally do what I want to do.
I was going to use the GPL so I can leverage as much of the current
open source libraries as possible. My understanding of the GPL is
that, anyone you distribute the binaries to, you have to allow them to
get the source code if they like. Thus I want to keep the install
closed, so that the customer has to buy the install, but once that is
done, s/he has access to the source code. Would I have to give people
that only downloaded the demos access to the source also? Is my
impression correct that the GPL only applies to actual source code,
not things like makefiles and documentation? Again, I am willing to
make the source code available to anyone, if I can keep the makefile
and instructions on how to compile it closed source and only make it
available to those that purchase the install. Oh, it is also my
impression that with the install being closed source, I am able to
license that such that customers can not redistribute the install.
Where to start... I have spent my career as a Windows programmer that
has always dabbled with the many flavors of UNIX. I have used
'configure' with other open source projects for years and years, but
being a Windows developer, I have never had the pleasure of creating a
project that uses this build approach. Along with the software I am
developing being open source, I plain to take it cross platform, so
the whole 'configure' approach seems the most logical way to manage
the build process. My only question: Where do I learn about how to
setup a project for configure? I am assuming there is one or two
really kickin FAQ's on the web, but I don't know here exactly to look
for them, configure and make seem to be a bit generic terms for a
google search;) Might you be able to point me to one?
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