We are looking to distribute an embedded software product using an open-source, GPL3.0 licensed operating system with our non-GPL proprietary software running on it. With normal works, if our code is using a GPL library, our software must also be licensed under GPL. However, since the software we are distributing is not a derivative of the operating system, must we license our software under GPL? Or does this restriction not apply to the software running the proprietary software?
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5This is basically the situation with Linux, except Linux is GPL2 licensed, not GPL3. Many of the standard tools in a typical distribution are GPL3 licensed as well.– BrandinMar 13, 2020 at 10:15
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1@Brandin That's essentially where I'm at right now. I have an embedded system that I want to run on a GPL3.0 licensed linux distro but I'm not sure if keeping the code for the software running in the desktop environment will be violating the license.– TylerMar 13, 2020 at 17:08
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1 Answer
It is perfectly fine for you to make a non-GPL program that runs on Linux.
With a somewhat similar result, Linux kernel modules are linked against LGPL code to prevent modules requiring to be GPL. Linus explained this back in 1995 as a deliberate design decision.
When you say "embedded software", you could risk your software becoming part of a single product, look into TiVoization to see if this could affect your product.
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Thanks for the answer! Currently there's no plans on making hardware restricted access to the innards, so I believe we're alright in terms of TiVoization, we were more worried about violating the GPL license by using and distributing the OS, but it seems we'll be alright. Thanks again!– TylerMar 16, 2020 at 14:22