Hey All,
Have searched both forums and FAQ and have read the Licensing stuff on the site, but can't seem to get a definitive answer, so here goes.
My company recently switched over to Ubuntu 11.10 as their main OS from Windows 7. Unfortunately, most of the tools available us plebs on the floor, to actually do our jobs, are not compatible with Linux.
I recently suggested that I.T. allow the installation of Wine to enable us to actually do what is requested of us. I got the response that we would be unable to as "it would be a breach of licensing contract. Wine can only have one license per company."
Now, as far as I understand it, licensing is not an issue when it comes to Wine and what I've received is essentially a PFO.
So, what I'm looking for is confirmation that this is just crap and that the Lesser General Public License confirms this.
Don't worry, not like I'm going to be quoting specific usernames from a forum to I.T., but if I had confirmation that the LGPL says there's not an issue, I would have a much stronger case.
Thanks in advance.
Wine Licensing with regards to use in Companies
you may have misunderstood the reasoning, or is that an exact quote? I see nothing in the LGPL that says anything like that. I LGPL my own code for Wineskin, which uses Wine and many other things like xorg and such to be able to make Mac ports of software, and companies even use and sell their software with this... which is perfectly legal. Generally there is more problems with software licensing when it comes to selling over just using.
You should be able to use Wine fine and legally on your machines, but it depends how well it works for the software your using in Wine, and what the licensing terms of the software is that your needing to run in Wine. The biggest obstacle I could think of usually comes down to licensing and support of the software requiring certain things, like running on certain versions of Windows etc... and not with Wine, but this has nothing to do with Wine licensing.
You should be able to use Wine fine and legally on your machines, but it depends how well it works for the software your using in Wine, and what the licensing terms of the software is that your needing to run in Wine. The biggest obstacle I could think of usually comes down to licensing and support of the software requiring certain things, like running on certain versions of Windows etc... and not with Wine, but this has nothing to do with Wine licensing.
Re: Wine Licensing with regards to use in Companies
IMO, whoever said that to you (if they weren't just trying to blow you off) is confusing licenses with installations. Unlike proprietary software, where 1 license = a limited number of installations (often just 1), there is no limit on the number of computers a licensee can install LGPL software on. Your company could install Wine on every computer it owns under one license.Ultrin wrote: I recently suggested that I.T. allow the installation of Wine to enable us to actually do what is requested of us. I got the response that we would be unable to as "it would be a breach of licensing contract. Wine can only have one license per company."
Thanks for the prompt feedback! 
Slight paraphrasing on the quote, the full one was "The use of WineHQ is not supported due to breach of license. As per their license, only one license per company is allowed, this is therefore not feasible."
But ya, figured as much myself, was just having trouble finding a definitive answer.
Slight paraphrasing on the quote, the full one was "The use of WineHQ is not supported due to breach of license. As per their license, only one license per company is allowed, this is therefore not feasible."
But ya, figured as much myself, was just having trouble finding a definitive answer.
No, there is a definitive answer: Wine's license does not in any way restrict use by a company other than requiring that any modifications to the software also be released under the same license. Wine is under the same license as the Linux kernel all your computers use. That's kinda the point.
I'd suggest asking them to tell you what license agreement they are referring to. The fact that they are calling the software "WineHQ" instead of Wine does not bode well for accuracy, but it does at least show that they are unlikely to be just using a form letter.
I'd suggest asking them to tell you what license agreement they are referring to. The fact that they are calling the software "WineHQ" instead of Wine does not bode well for accuracy, but it does at least show that they are unlikely to be just using a form letter.
No, it's not. The kernel is GPL, Wine is LGPL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser ... ic_Licensetrlkly wrote: Wine is under the same license as the Linux kernel all your computers use. .
Again (to be sure) and in short: You are right, they are wrong.Ultrin wrote: Slight paraphrasing on the quote, the full one was "The use of WineHQ is not supported due to breach of license. As per their license, only one license per company is allowed, this is therefore not feasible."
If your company switched to Linux, which is often a good idea depending on the daily work it needs to do, you should propose to hire Linux-aware people in your IT. Not everyone calling himself a computer scientist can use a computer, or even Linux. It's just the same thing i see in the very big Company i'm working at. Always consider that you know more than your IT is my advice for you
