Has anyone looked into the product by www.hype ric.com before?

[Voon, Ton]

Ben,

This is a misconception - you can sell GPL code:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DoesTheGPLAllowMoney

The main requirement for publishers of GPL code is that you have to make the
source code available. So Plumtree could do this: 

- Take Nagios as their backend monitoring service
- Make whatever modifications to the core Nagios code depending on what
their customers want
- Charge for the software (and any associated support costs)

The GPL insists that changes to that core code must be available to their
customers (but any custom software that does not include GPL code can be
kept private - cf the open source Darwin of MacOSX and their propritary
Quartz rendering engine). 

These changes do not have to be submitted back to the Nagios community.
However, in my view, to be a "good citizen", those modifications should come
back to us for inclusion into future versions. In return, we would be happy
to publicise their involvement. 

I think this is a win-win-win situation: we get increased quality in code,
Plumtree get to supply monitoring services for a lower startup cost and
customers get great software that helps their business.

Ton

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Clewett [mailto:Ben at clewett.org.uk] 
Sent: 25 May 2004 09:38
To: Voon, Ton
Cc: 'Jason Truong'; nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] Has anyone looked into the product by www.hype
ric.com before?

Ton,

Just a comment.  I had an argument in some depth with MySQL about why they
force people to buy there product.  My understanding is, and I hope other
people will correct me:

You can't sell GPL as-is.

You can sell support licenses, installation, the hardware it sits on,
configuration, help, the box and CD's it comes in.  But not the program.

MySQL *claim* you can sell GPL code if a you extend the product and sell the
result.  Therefore breaking the GPL.  You are effectively buy a license
which revokes the GPL for your specific case.

MySQL further claim than an extension of GPL includes any product which uses
any part of theirs, and no other interoperable system.  Which includes use
of the GPL drivers and other code used within foreign code.

Therefore if any other company took Nagios, used any part of it as the 
basis of another product which they then sold, this is illigal.   But 
you can charge them a wopping great license to revoke the GPL....

This can be changed by adopting the LGPL license, which waves rights on your
code used in foreign code.  Which is the same as the BSD license used by
PostgreSQL.

Further information from MySQL.

It must be noted that all of this is untested by law, including MySQL's
claims that there interperation is correct.

Ben


Voon, Ton wrote:
> I don't see why you cannot repackage Nagios and sell the service - in 
> fact, the GNU licence allows you to do that. What you cannot do is 
> remove the GNU licence or the copyrights.
> 
> Other companies "make money" from opensource software. Apple use a 
> version of FreeBSD as the core of their MacOSX. Red Hat make money 
> from distributing Linux. Webhosting companies use Apache to sell their
services.
> 
> The key, I think, is to be open about it ("Plumtree use Nagios as the 
> core of our monitoring software") and show that you are "being a good 
> citizen" by contributing back changes and generally helping to improve 
> the codebase. I would be happy to credit Plumtree for any patches that 
> you provide to show your participation.
> 
> As for commercial support, http://nagios.org lists a few companies 
> that will provide you an extra level of support if your customers have 
> problems that you cannot fix internally. I'm sure you could partner with
one of them.
> 
> My point is, I wouldn't rule out Nagios just because it is opensource. 
> If you think it is a good product, then your customers will too.
> 
> Ton
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jason Truong [mailto:Jason.Truong at plumtree.com]
> Sent: 25 May 2004 00:02
> To: nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: [Nagios-users] Has anyone looked into the product by 
> www.hyperic.com before?
> 
> Internally we use Nagios.  I have been using for quite some time and 
> love it.  Our company is looking into something like Nagios but 
> packaging it into a product to help monitor our product, the Plumtree
portal.
> 
> Has anyone looked into http://www.hyperic.com/ before?  The folks in 
> upper management are looking for a company to partner up with.
> 
> If anyone knows of a better commercial product, can you please give me 
> your suggestions.  The portal manager is looking for something like 
> Nagios, network/systems management tool, but with commercial support.  
> I don't think that Plumtree can package Nagios since that would break 
> some of the legal aspects of using opensource.  I personally love 
> Nagios and would not want my company to re-package Nagios and try to 
> sell it as a add-on package/service without giving back to Nagios.  
> (sorry I don't understand the licensing all too well)
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Jason Truong
> Plumtree Software
> (415) 399-7006


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