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