Paid version of GNUCash
Mike or Penny Novack
stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
Sat May 15 13:16:40 EDT 2010
>>Hi
>>I heard that there is a paid version of GNUCash which is not free and has
>>addiitonal features. I just want to confirm if there is any such version or
>>it is just a rumour.
>>
>>
>
>
>No, Gnucash is free (as in speech) software licensed under the Gnu Public License. There is no dual-licensing scheme.
>
>There are some eBay sellers who bundle up Gnucash on a CD and sell it for around $10. Many of them are less than honest about whose work it is that they're selling. It's possible, of course, that they've added features. Unlikely, but possible.
>
>Regards,
>John Ralls
>
>
>
The fact that it is "free software" refers to the license. There is no
prohibition of anybody selling you a copy on medium. Even the free
software project team isn't obligated to make anything available gratis
(free download). The "free software" concept technically specifies
"available on standard medium for a reasonable fee" (for on medium) and
these days the typical fee for that service (download, burn to medium,
and send it to you) is around $5 from most places that offer that
service. For example, even when software is available for free download
some of us couldn't do that from home as the necessary bandwidth not
available. So my choices would be wait till a day that a nearby library
is open or if I wanted it NOW, drive a longer distance to a larger town
where free bandwidth available every day. And before we had laptops here
we used "burn to CD for you" services.
There's no prohibition of them charging whatever the traffic would bear
BUT that's the point of the "free software" license. Anybody trying to
charge excessively for "on medium" would be undercut by somebody else
doing it cheaper.
NOTES:
1) They wouldn't have had to add features to GnuCash itself. Could be
other things on the CD too.
2) Just because the SOFTWARE is free doesn't mean somebody couldn't
write a "user guide", imagine "GnuCash for Dummies" and THAT wouldn't
have to be free.
PS: Sorry but I'm unable to provide supporting quotes. I once had
collected the original "free software" discussions (the founding of the
"free software" movement) but these did not survive the fire.
Michael
More information about the gnucash-user
mailing list