I finally had time to deal with this issue:
SmoothWall GPL is licenced under the GNU GPL.
Portions of SmoothWall, including the installer and the ADSL management utilities, are licenced under modified licences which are available on application. No modifications to either the installation libraries or binaries and re-distribution of modified binaries based on the installer is permitted without the owners permission. The owners of this code are Lawrence Manning (lawrence@smoothwall.org) and Daniel Goscomb (dang@smoothwall.org).
With those restrictions, those restricted parts of SmoothWall are not even free software any more. I should talk with the main SmoothWall developers and ask them to change this; can anyone tell me who they are, and how to reach them?
Also, I'd like someone to send me some basic information about SmoothWall, so I can avoid making foolish mistakes when I write?
Janet, SmoothWall should not now be listed in the Directory at all, because it is not entirely free software.
I am aware of this. 0.9.8 installer was released under GPL. The COPYING file for 0.9.9 beta prefixes the standard v.2 GPL with:
Does anyone have a copy of version 0.9.8? Please see if that version contains, under the GPL, older free versions of some or all of these non-free programs. If it does, could you tell me which parts of the non-free code it has, and which parts it does not have?
On Sun, Aug 26, 2001 at 08:42:17PM -0600, Richard Stallman wrote:
I am aware of this. 0.9.8 installer was released under GPL. The COPYING file for 0.9.9 beta prefixes the standard v.2 GPL with:Does anyone have a copy of version 0.9.8? Please see if that version contains, under the GPL, older free versions of some or all of these non-free programs. If it does, could you tell me which parts of the non-free code it has, and which parts it does not have?
Searching a little bit with google, I found that older smoothwall releases are still available at sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=10366&release_id=2...
Freshmeat gives the smoothwall ftp, where the 0.9.8 release is still available:
ftp://ftp.smoothwall.org/pub/releases/0.9.8/
The mirror which freshmeat gives doesn't contain the files anymore.
Jeroen Dekkers
On Sun, Aug 26, 2001 at 08:42:17PM -0600, Richard Stallman wrote:
With those restrictions, those restricted parts of SmoothWall are not even free software any more. I should talk with the main SmoothWall developers and ask them to change this; can anyone tell me who they are, and how to reach them?
Richard Morrell et al are contactable via the smoothwall.org website I believe. However - this problem has been reported to licensing@gnu.org, because I had a short conversation with David Turner about it. You ought to talk to him if you haven't already.
Also, I'd like someone to send me some basic information about SmoothWall, so I can avoid making foolish mistakes when I write?
SmoothWall is basically a GNU/Linux system you put on a gateway box, targetted at home users and SMEs. It has a web interface, etc., so you can configure it easy from your local network. Features include reasonable security, support for protocols such as IPSec, IKE (via FreeS/WAN I believe), support for most netowkr hardware including ADSL. It's a fairly easy install too. To be honest, it's nothing amazingly special, but it's nicely polished.
SmoothWall is pretty popular, in the UK at least. It has been on a number of magazine coverdiscs, including Windows-oriented magazines, and is also popular on old hardware (486s, etc.). 'Smooth Wall' also appears to be a trademark, and the intention seems to be that SmoothWall will become a commercial product. This 'commercialistation' is where a lot of the disagreement comes from: Richard Morrell wants to be the sole distributer, and doesn't like it when others sell copies of SmoothWall.
Does anyone have a copy of version 0.9.8? Please see if that version contains, under the GPL, older free versions of some or all of these non-free programs. If it does, could you tell me which parts of the non-free code it has, and which parts it does not have?
Jason Clifford (jason@jasonclifford.com, jason@uklinux.net - not sure which is 'primary') would be the person to talk to. I'm not sure if he's an absolute regular user of SmoothWall, but he's the guy who pretty much kicked all this off (see also http://www.jasonclifford.com/smoothwall.html). He's got copies of the software, and has investigated it fairly thoroughly from the looks of things, so he should be able to answer in some fine detail.
I hope this helps some.
Cheers,
Alex.
Richard Morrell et al are contactable via the smoothwall.org website I believe.
It isn't feasible for me to browse a web site--could you tell me his email address, please?
The main "mover and shaker" appears to be Richard Morrell, who seems to count you as a personal friend. He did change the 0.9.9beta licence back to GPL, although I am not aware of anyone with the complete source.
Does this mean the problem has been solved (at least for now)? It could mean that, but I would like to be sure. Could you confirm?
Would someone please download all the available recent versions of SmoothWall and save them?
On Tue, Aug 28, 2001 at 01:25:47PM -0600, Richard Stallman wrote:
Richard Morrell et al are contactable via the smoothwall.org website I believe.It isn't feasible for me to browse a web site--could you tell me his email address, please?
Sure, sorry. Richard's address is richard@smoothwall.org. I believe richard@caveonet.com should also reach him, as will richard@linux.com. For your reference, he lists his phone number as +44 2380 330 430.
to count you as a personal friend. He did change the 0.9.9beta licence back to GPL, although I am not aware of anyone with the complete source.Does this mean the problem has been solved (at least for now)? It could mean that, but I would like to be sure. Could you confirm?
As far as I am aware, 0.9.9 beta is not GPL. I think they have removed the modifications to the licence, but it is still unclear to what software the licence applies. Certainly Richard Morrell is unable to change the licence on a whim - the installer, for example, is copyright soley Lawrence Manning - but it may be that the SmoothWall development team have some to an agreement over this.
0.9.9 is out 'for real' on the 1st September - this should probably be checked thoroughly. The 0.9.9 directories are already up on the mirrors, but contain only Lada ISOs (the beta). 0.9.9 has already been semi-announced.
Would someone please download all the available recent versions of SmoothWall and save them?
I will save 0.9.8 (both ISO and 'cvsstuff' - the source release), it may also be wise for other people to make copies. 0.9.9beta may be of limited use, given it's binary only. I know other people with copies also, esp. the binary distributions that are still on coverdisks (0.9.8 again).
For a point release though, the difference between 0.9.8 and 0.9.9 seems quite radical - although, perhaps it's only the GUI that has undergone major surgery.
Cheers,
Alex.