Quoting wintermute (cout@eircom.net):
> No, as of oh, about a year to a year and a half ago
> SuSE revoked it's free offering of it's retail distro.
> Sometime about the start of the great slump, SuSE pulled
> free release of it's main x86 product.
>
> So the last free version of SuSE you could get via a Linux Format
> par example was 7.0 I think.
Let's limit the discussion to x86, to simplify.  There are some
additional complications for some of the other architectures.
(Essentially, they make most of the other architectures' ISO images
available gratis, because they aren't selling boxed sets and want the
public to have them anyway.  The ISOs include third-party proprietary
apps, but of necessity not the highly-restricted ones available in
boxed set editions.)
(1) You can get a single-disk ISO9660 image of SuSE "evaluation"
edition, version 7.0, _lots_ of places, including here:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/evaluation-7.0/evaluation-7.0.iso
(2) You could "wget -r" (or equivalent) the entire 8.0 FTP Edition (for
lack of an official name for it) from here (or mirror sites):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/8.0/
Please note the restricted rights granted for use of the SuSE-originated
YaST program specifically, stated here:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/8.0/COPYRIGHT.yast
A grant of limited redistribution rights to the distribution as a whole
(apparently covering the FTP Edition and the Evaluation Edition) is
stated here: ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/README.mirror-policy   Quoting:
please make sure that you meet the following conditions if
you intend to mirror ftp.suse.com:
- SuSE Linux (YaST in particular) may not be reproduced on
CDs or other media FOR VALUE. Reproduction for personal
or educational use is explicitly allowed and encouraged.
> I'm not sure on the details of it, but I think SuSE have
> probably done an OpenBSD of the cd they sell?
OpenBSD Foundation assert a compilation copyright over the OpenBSD
official ISO9660 image.  A compilation copyright is the copyright
monopoly that, for example, the editor of a set of third-party short
stories receives.  Even though he didn't write any of the constituent
stories, he put creative work into selecting, arranging, and editing
those stories.  The law recognises such efforts as creative works
deserving copyright protection, if there is sufficient creative effort.
(A judge would decide, if someone made a court case of it.)  Courts have
held, on the other hand, that arrangement and publication of
alphabetical telephone listings in a "yellow pages" telephone directory
(the advertising section) don't have anywhere near enough creative
content to support an overreaching telco's claim of compilation
copyright.  (The court politely said "Nice try", in effect.)
The OpenBSD Foundation's claim may be a bit of a legal bluff, too.
Theoretically, one could get around it by creating a slightly different
set of ISO9660 images, thereby finessing the claim of compilation
copyright.  But nobody bothers, because OpenBSD Foundation actually
charges only a very reasonable price for jewel-case sets, and nobody
wants to endure the barrage of hatemail from Theo & co.
I've never seen any claim from SuSE of compilation copyright on its ISOs
or distribution as a whole.
> I could be wrong, I don't use SuSE so haven't investigated,
> but essentially the only 'free' version of SuSE will be it's
> ftp offering.
Again, the "FTP Edition" and the Evaluation Edition may be redistributed
more-or-less freely, as long as it's not "for value".  (Ditto the
"live-eval" edition, which is a demo only.)  The three boxed sets'
contents may not.
--
Cheers,              A good man has few enemies; a ruthless man has none.
Rick Moen
rick@linuxmafia.com
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