Sorry to bring this up, but I was at a seminar yesterday
about 'Embeding with Linux'.

The only speaker who covered licencing was the provider of
an (expensive) comercial alternative and his take was that
you can never secure your software in Linux.

I've been having a look this morning because I know I have
seen the answers, but can't find them now.

My simple view of things is as follows

I install SUSE Linux from the box - no changes to it so no
licencing problem, and the customer can have a copy of the
disks - if they want them.

I add Firebird, and just include the source as a matter of
caution. ( You never know when you might need it on site and
your laptop has failed <g> )

I setup the customers database with their requirements, and
at present all access is from clients on Win98 machines, so
no further access to the linux server so - as I see it - no
licencing problems.

The sales pitch did hint that even your data was not 'safe'
but we will ignore the bullshit. In this setup there is no
potential problems, and the content and structure of the
data can be safely secured.

The next step is obviously to put the client on a Linux
machine, but again, if I make no changes to system I am
working on, then I do NOT have to release the code of my
application - provided that I follow the rules on creating
that code.

Am I getting this right, and where should I have been
looking to check it? While I am playing with Kylix for this
step, I am finding that droping it may well be an option, as
it is being more of a hindrance than a help <g>.

--
Lester Caine
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L.S.Caine Electronic Services