I'm not an expert on open source licenses, however it seems that it is possible under the GPL and MPL to distribute software commercially. There are lots of online stores selling various linux distros.
Is it possible to sell a usb drive with the portableapps suite pre-installed on it.
If so is any body doing this ?
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(as I'm no expert in any way either) ..but I think you can do this - as long as you don't charge for the software. What you can charge for, is the preinstallation (a service you provide) and the unit itself, and I guess you can charge whatever you want for that. Do keep in mind, you must inform the buyer(s) that this is based on free open source software, copyrights etc. must be kept intact, and depending on license you may also have to be ready to provide any derivative source code you include with this.
As open source software, you're free to redistribute the unaltered binaries (the installers) for all the applications that PortableApps.com publishes. You can even sell them the same way folks are selling the installers for the Linux distros you see online. You can not yet pre-install the Suite or any of the Mozilla apps on drives for redistribution. I'm currently working with Mozilla on a licensing agreement to allow this.
Once allowed, there will probably be two options. The first would be free but you wouldn't be able to use any of the trademarks on packaging, advertising, etc. The second would have a small per-drive fee and allow you to co-brand the PortableApps Menu, be listed in the upcoming hardware section on the website, etc.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
So for instance could I sell a USB flash drive that had this binary file on it (but no apps installed on the drive):
PortableApps_Suite_Standard_1.0.exe
or:
PortableApps_Suite_Lite_1.0.exe
or just:
Firefox_Portable_2.0_en-us.paf.exe
and maybe a Readme.txt with instructions on how to install the apps on the drive?
And details on the packaging describing the software that the user can install but without branding, logos, screenshots etc ...
Or would I have to put the binaries (and source???) on a CD packaged with the drive?
What I would really like to do is include one or more binaries in a 'CDROM' partition on the drive that would not get erased (I've seen drives like this from companies like customUSB). Then they would always be available for the user to reinstall.
...because it's not actually installed.
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Ryan McCue
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