Software policy
From FGVwiki
This page documents an adopted policy of Free Geek Vancouver
Approved by: General on June 14th, 2011.
Free Geek Vancouver supports free and open source software (FOSS).
When we sell computers, give them to volunteer adopters, or donate them for hardware grants, we install only FOSS operating systems and software. For more information on FOSS and why Free Geek is proud to support it, see Why Free Software?
Policy
Free Geek will not distribute proprietary software on removable media, over the Internet or installed on hard-drives with some minor exceptions:
- Console based video games as well as the video game consoles themselves
- Audio compact discs(CDs) and video digital video discs (DVDs)
Why we don't distribute proprietary software
Free Geek does not sell or otherwise redistribute proprietary or other non-free software. When media containing non-free software is donated to Free Geek, the media is recycled.
The reasons for this policy are:
- Proprietary software (that is, software that one must pay for) goes against the principles of FOSS.
- Re-selling software licenses can be a legal minefield:
History
This issue has raised strong opinions among our membership.
The public mailing list archives contain several interesting threads about this issue:
