54
Question regarding license choice for my program
(lemmy.world)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
As others have already said, the prohibition of using the code in commercial applications would make the license not open source/free software (as defined by the Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative.)
These are some of the most commonly used licenses:
If you want to use a true FLOSS license and your goal is to discourage people from selling it, I'd say the GPL is your best bet. Legit vendors who don't want to give out their source code won't touch GPL code. The non-legit ones won't care no matter what license you choose. Also, iOS App Store terms are not compatible with the GPL so they can't release their stuff there, but you can as long as you hold full copyright to your application.
[This comment has been deleted by an automated system]
That is a good point to emphasize. A downside of a CLA is that it adds a bit of bureaucracy and may deter some contributors. If the primary concern is whether a GPL licensed app is publishable on an App Store, an alternative is to add an app store exception clause to the license. (The GPL allows optional extra clauses to make the license more permissive.) Though this means that while your code can be incorporated to other GPL licensed applications, you can't take code from other GPL projects that don't have the same exception.