Why isn’t Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop free

free softwaregplrhel

Why isn't Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop free?

Isn't it a Linux OS? If it is, so why is not free?

http://www.redhat.com/products/enterprise-linux/desktop/

Best Answer

The reason that a Linux distribution is "free" is that many of the pieces of software it includes are covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL for short).

There are two different types of "free":

  • freedom to see and modify the source code ("libre")
  • free of charge ("gratis")

The GPL is about the first "freedom", not the second.

Provided Red Hat release the source code, then they are probably complying with the license.

Further reading:

References:

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