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Ubuntu, Qt and licencing

We have a website that we are planning to distribute in a device. It is basically a big web site with lots of pictures and information. The web site is already built using some flash and javascript. I am thinking on using ubuntu for this. My plan is to install ubuntu( server, maybe!) without a graphical enviroment( Gnome, KDE, etc...) and start a browser like firefox using X servers. I have already tried this using Code:

xinit firefox

It works and loads firefox fine. I am also thinking to build a Simple UI that w开发者_如何学Goill be launched at start. This UI will have a button to start this website and maybe other programs.

I hope I made myself clear.

I would like to know what do you guys think about this? Does it sound like something feasible? Do you think its a good idea to do this way? Do you have any suggestions?

It terms of licensing I don't understand well. I know ubuntu is licensed mainly under GNU GPL and I know is open source. I know that you are required to have any modifications available. However I am not sure if that includes the source code for the web site or any other proprietary application that i create and include. My understanding is that you only need to have open source any changes made to the OS but not any configuration after it has been installed.

What about Qt which is liscenced GNU LGPL v. 2.1? Do i need to release the code for the UI i make or is it only the code for any changes made to Qt itself?

Thanks in advance to anyone that reads this. I have read a lot on this but I am not so sure i got it right. I would like to know if I am at least in the right path.

Any help will be appreciated.enter code here


Ubuntu is GPL - if you make any changes to the Ubuntu (or rather linux) kernel itself then you have to offer those changes to anyone you distribute Ubuntu to - that has nothing to do with any applications or data you use on the operating system.

Qt is LGPL - you can use Qt to make any application you want without releasing anything about your application. You only have to release any modifications you make to the Qt source code yourself - which you are unlikely to do.

You don't need Qt for any of this, you can have a browser run full screen at startup in Ubuntu (or any other linux), and you can have a simple start page which will also start other local apps with just html - this may be a lot easier.

There are also "kiosk modes" for most browsers which limit what features and tool bars are present so you can prevent users quitting the browser or loading/saving other data.

Finally check out xubuntu - it's a version of ubuntu with X but without Gnome or KDE


IANAL, but with LGPL you can dynamically link to Qt and not be required to license your own sources under LGPL. The general rule of thumb is that your end user should be able to take code of LGPLed component, make modifications to it, and have your proprietary code work with it. This also means you can link statically to LGPLed code if you provide at least object files of your own code, so they can be relinked.

For linux I suspect the answer is yes as well, but I can't say anything specific.

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