Licensing

Linnovate SLA is given on top of standard LTS Ubuntu servers. Ubuntu is a collection of thousands of computer programs and documents created by a range of individuals, teams and companies.

Each of these programs may come under a different licence. This licence policy describes the process that we follow in determining which software will be included by default in the Ubuntu operating system.

Copyright licensing and trademarks are two different areas of law, and we consider them separately in Ubuntu. The following policy applies only to copyright licences. We evaluate trademarks on a case-by-case basis.

Categories of software in Ubuntu

The thousands of software packages available for Ubuntu are organised into four key groups or components: main, restricted, universe and multiverse. Software is published in one of these components based on whether or not it meets our free software philosophy, and the level of support we can provide for it.

This policy only addresses the software that you will find in main and restricted, which contain software that is fully supported by the Ubuntu team and must comply with this policy.

Ubuntu 'main' component licence policy

All application software included in the Ubuntu main component:

Ubuntu 'main' and 'restricted' component licence policy

All application software in both main and restricted must meet the following requirements:

Documentation, firmware and drivers

Ubuntu contains licensed and copyrighted works that are not application software. For example, the default Ubuntu installation includes documentation, images, sounds, video clips and firmware. The Ubuntu community will make decisions on the inclusion of these works on a case-by-case basis, ensuring that these works do not restrict our ability to make Ubuntu available free of charge, and that you can continue to redistribute Ubuntu.

Software installed by default

When you install Ubuntu, you will typically install a complete desktop environment. It is also possible to install a minimal set of software (just enough to boot your machine) and then manually select the precise software applications to install. Such a "custom" install is usually favoured by server administrators, who prefer to keep only the software they absolutely need on the server.

All of the application software installed by default is free software. In addition, we install some hardware drivers that are available only in binary format, but such packages are clearly marked in the restricted component.