Serdar Yegulalp | RSS
Serdar Yegulalp

Serdar Yegulalp has been writing about personal computing and information technology for over fifteen years for a variety of publications, including Windows Magazine, the TechTarget family of sites and Computerworld.com. In his time as columnist for InformationWeek, he examined open source vs. commercial software.

Jul 17, 2010

One great benefit of using Linux, Apache, and other open source software is that you can modify the code to make it perfect for your business. But open source licensing restricts how you distribute the modifications.  Here’s what a CIO needs to know about open source licenses.

Most open source software licenses have two provisions in common:

No limits on personal use, unmodified redistribution, or internal re-use. You can use the software as-is on your own, redistribute it, or modify it from source for your own use. This makes most every open source application immediately useful as an in-house productivity booster: you don’t pay anything to use it, no matter how many seats you deploy it on. And as long as you restrict the software to in-house use, you can modify it freely and keep the modifications confidential. READ MORE

Want more like this? Sign up for the weekly IT Expert Voice Newsletter so you don't miss a thing!
DELL
FM IT Expert Voice is a partnership between Dell and Federated Media. Privacy Statement