New Linux User

EXPLAIN: What’s the GNU GPL?

by Jon on September 25th, 2005

GNU GPL stands for GNU General Public License. It’s a license written by Richard Stallman of the GNU Project that is available for any software author to use. Applications licensed under the GNU GPL allow anyone to:

1. Run the software
2. Examine how it works (sourcecode required)
3. Share the software with anyone they wish
4. Modify how it works (as long as modifications are released under the same GNU GPL and sourcecode required)

There are other variants of the GNU GPL also available for things like application libraries (vice full applications) and documents.

In a nutshell, this means that you can be confident that you are not violating any licensing terms by using or sharing the application. If you’re a developer, you have to make sure that if you modify it and distribute the modifications, they must match the license of the original source.

The current GPL is version 2.0 and version 3.0 is being written as we speak.

Read the current GPL.

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