do not forget coyote linux
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Igor Jan 24, 2007 7:55 PM EDT |
I am using coyote linux router/firewall for more than five years without a single glitch. http://www.coyotelinux.com |
| incinerator Jan 25, 2007 12:44 AM EDT |
"This firewall product is licensed for personal and educational use and is available free of charge from the downloads section of this site." Seems they don't really grok Free Software, do they now. I wonder if they even offer the source code. They might actually violate the GPL if they don't. From the licensing and software freedom point of view coyote certainly is not a distro one should recommend. You're much better of with ipcop or m0n0wall, these are community efforts and all their source code is readily available without any dodgy licensing strings attached. To sum it up: Coyote Linux is NOT Free Software. |
| Igor Jan 25, 2007 3:56 AM EDT |
Brazil router/firewall is based on Coyote Linux router/firewall..... so, it seems to me that the guys from Brasil DO have access to the source code. More details here http://www.brazilfw.com.br/forum/kb.php?mode=article&k=50 Even more, there IS a community around this router/firewall. See this link http://www.brazilfw.com.br/forum/kb.php?sid=98e66b8f8359f80c... Brazil FW IS GPL based router/firewall. Brazilfw is a mini-distribution designed for setting up network utility services such as Internet connection sharing, firewalling, or wireless access points. The goal is to make it as quick and easy as possible to set up a Linux system with only a minimal amount of Linux knowledge. The main goal of BrazilFW is to continue the development of what was the Coyote Linux floppy firewall system. See details here http://freshmeat.net/projects/brazilfw/ Coyote Linux Coyote Linux - Floppy Firewall - Stable branch License] Free for non-commercial use, Free To Use But Restricted, OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License (GPL) http://freshmeat.net/projects/coyotelinux/ Here http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=63552 you can download souurce build tree for the coyote linux router/firewal -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is BrazilFW? BrazilFW is a Linux mini-distro, designed for setting up network utility services such as internet connection sharing, firewalling, routing and wireless access points. BrazilFW aims to make it as quick and easy as possible to set up a Linux system with minimum hardware requirements and no Linux knowledge. Exclusive Windows® Wizard to create your Linux boot disk from any Windows® system. The main goal of BrazilFW is to continue the development of the former Coyote Linux floppy firewall/routing system. The system is module based and it is a very advanced piece of routing software. Extra features can easily be added by adding an extra module. |
| incinerator Jan 25, 2007 5:30 AM EDT |
Thanks for pointing me to these links. It seems coyote doesn't violate the GPL, after all. I still think the "only for private use" licensing restrictions are stupid though. And at least for the part of the software that is licensed under the GPL that license is not enforceable anyway. You're not allowed simply take a Linux kernel and add a sticker to it that says "you're not allowed to use this comercially". The only way to successfully that non-free licensing approach would be to create some proprietary application software that just happens to run on Linux. If you create a ready-made packaged distro, you would still need to comply to the licensing conditions of the Free Software components you've used, though. . I guess coyote has done the same thing clarkconnect, smoothwall and other have done. They've developed some non-free front-end that makes it easier to control and configure the firewall/router. If you take that front-end away all you get is a GNU/Linux firewall/router distro that's just as difficult to control as the others. My conclusion is still the same: As long as coyote follows that "licensed only for personal, non-commercial use" approach and doesn't make the source code for all its components available under free software licensing terms, coyote remains non-free software. |
| Igor Jan 25, 2007 6:35 AM EDT |
incinerator said: I guess coyote has done the same thing clarkconnect, smoothwall and other have done. They've developed some non-free front-end that makes it easier to control and configure the firewall/router. If you take that front-end away all you get is a GNU/Linux firewall/router distro that's just as difficult to control as the others. Igor's comment: Use Brasil FW and you are fine. You will get a difficult router/firewall controlled with a __free__ (no restrictions) front end. Brasil FW continued there where Coyote FW stopped incinerator said: My conclusion is still the same: As long as coyote follows that "licensed only for personal, non-commercial use" approach and doesn't make the source code for all its components available under free software licensing terms, coyote remains non-free software. Igor's comment: Use Brasil FW (which is based on Coyote FW 2.23) and you will have ALL source code available. The current stable version is 2.30. Just click on this link: http://www.brazilfw.com.br/forum/viewlinks.php?link_cat=4 And, of course, you can download the full source code of the ___last___ version of the Coyote FW (2.23) http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/coyotelinux/c... |
| incinerator Jan 25, 2007 7:23 AM EDT |
That's no proof that brazilfw uses the same frontend software as the coyote original. I don't doubt that brazilfw is 100% free software, but brazilfw isn't coyote, is it? The fact that I can download some source code from that sourceforge.net page you mentions doesn't mean that the download contain ALL of coyote's source code. I suspect these downloads are there to comply with the GPL, nothing more. It's pretty likely that some parts of coyote are non-free and not available for free download. It could be some parts of the front-end, it could be other things. They wouldn't be the first doing so. Even suse did the same before they finally re-licensed yast to make it Free Software.. If coyote was 100% free software why would they make stupid licensing restrictions contradicting the GPL, like "this firewall product is licensed for personal and educational use"? (If you don't believe me, go to http://www.coyotelinux.com/ and scroll to the end of the page, read the section about "Coyote Linux Personal Firewall" ) You simply cannot license some software under the GPL and then say the user is only allowed to run it for "private, educational, non-commercial purposes". That would be an obvious contradiction to the GPL. Still the same: Brazilfw might well be Free Software. Coyote, with its stupid GPL-contradicting licensing terms, is not. But perhaps Igor Einstein can solve that contradiction for us, ja? |
| Igor Jan 26, 2007 12:31 AM EDT |
That's no proof that brazilfw uses the same frontend software as the coyote original. I don't doubt that brazilfw is 100% free software, but brazilfw isn't coyote, is it? BrazilFW 2.30 is a derivative of the version 2.23 of the Coyote FW. The ____complete____ source build tree for the Coyote 2.23 is available here http://superb-east.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/coyotelinu... This archive contains the source code and necessary utilities to build the executables and kernel for Coyote Linux 2.23. This package requires a functioning Linux system and a decent understanding of the Linux command line to use. As of the release of this package, CentOS 4 is used as the official development platform for Coyote Linux. Unless you plan to make custom modification to the Coyote Linux source code, you do not need to download this package. Size: 56MB bziped. The author of the the Coyote FW 2.xx said here on November 20.2004 at 7:28AM http://forums.vortech.net/read.php?8,38873,38873 Re: Coyote Linux License? Posted by: jjackson (Moderator) Date: November 20, 2004 07:28AM The Linux distro itself and the Linux disk creator are GPL. The Windows Wizard is freeware. Changing topic... Does it matter if the frontend of the BrasilFW 2.30 is the same as the frontend od the Coyote 2.23 ? I am familiar with BOTH versions... BrasilFW web front end is derivative of the Coyote 2.23 web front end... The BrasilFW is better and nicer. With a BrasilFW you get improved Coyote2.23 under pure GPL with better front end. Another change of the topic: incinerator said: If you don't believe me, go to http://www.coyotelinux.com/ and scroll to the end of the page, read the section about "Coyote Linux Personal Firewall" ) You are right.... but.... I am ____all___ the time talking about Coyote 2.23 (and Brazilian derivative BrazilFW 2.30) If you click on this link http://www.coyotelinux.com and then on the download link on the left side http://www.coyotelinux.com/downloads/ you will see that there are ___two___ products: - Coyote Linux Floppy Edition 2.23/24 http://www.coyotelinux.com/downloads/channel.php?ChannelID=5 - Coyote Linux personal firewall 3.xx Those are two different products. Coyote Linux 2.24 _____IS_____ GPL based product. another piece of the misterious puzzle, written by the author of the Coyote Linux here http://forums.vortech.net/read.php?8,53610,53610#msg-53610 Coyote Linux floppy firewall development discontinued Posted by: jjackson (Moderator) Date: August 23, 2005 09:31PM I have decided to discontinue official releases of the Coyote Linux Floppy Firewall. My decision to do so has been a long time coming and was a hard one to make. I simply do not have the time nor desire to continue development of a floppy based solution. In fact, I don't even own a system that has a floppy drive nor have I used Coyote Linux for anything in several years. I would like to thank all of you that have contributed to Coyote's development over the years. It would not have been near the success that it is if I had not had help from the many individuals willing to contribute their time and talents to help develop one of the most complete and user-friendly mini-distributions of Linux. Anyone wishing to continue working on Coyote is welcome to do so, but will need to change the name of their distribution. In addition, I must remind the community that the Windows Wizard is not (and never has been) covered under the GNU public license and may not be redistributed in any modified form. Finally, please do not email me asking me to keep the project open. I have given this decision a lot of thought and it is final. NOTE: As there seems to be some confusion as to my intentions... I have only discontinued development of the floppy version of Coyote Linux. Work is still being done on Embedded Coyote products and a new version of Coyote which runs from IDE/SCSI devices (Coyote Linux 3.00). Now, dear inicerator, take a deep breath, count to ten and then do the math! |
| incinerator Jan 26, 2007 1:03 AM EDT |
> "Coyote Linux 2.24 _____IS_____ GPL based product." Oh, and the "Personal Firewall" is not? Repeating the same statements all over doesn't make them right. Why do you keep mentioning brazilfw, anyway? I was criticising coyote's licensing terms and not brazilfw, you brought that into the game. Just because someone was able to fork coyote doesn't make their dodgy licensing terms right. Perhaps we can focus on that part and leave brazilfw out of the picture, ja? > "I am ____all___ the time talking about Coyote 2.23" Really? I must have gaps in my memory then. Or am I illiterate? I'v just re-read all you posts to this thread and apart from one statement where you say that brazilfw was originally derived from coyote 2.23 I could not find anything that would suggest that'd you'd be talking about that one particular version all the time. Your first post to this thread was a statement that you'd be using coyote linux for five years. You made no mention of edition, version or whatever. Then I criticised their licensing conditions which I read on the page you linked to in your initial post. Except in your last post, you haven't said anything to answer that. Instead, you keep mentioning some obscure derivative and suddenly claim all you've been talking about is one particular variant and version of coyote in the first place. Not to forget the citing of technical details I couldn't care less about. I was trying to discuss non-free licensing terms, perhaps we could keep all that brazilfw stuff etc. out of this thread, ja? |
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