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usb_bunny
Asked: 2020-08-26 13:44:58 +0800 CST

School wanting to use ubuntu 20.04 on all student laptops and need to know if any special licensing is needed? [duplicate]

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Our school is wanting to switch from a mix of Windows 8 laptops and Chrome OS laptops to all running Ubuntu 20.04, we got a few working and running as a test and there running amazing, what we were wondering was if we needed any special licensing as we did with the others or if we were good to go with just installing Ubuntu on the rest of them?

windows license education chromebook 20.04

1 Answers

  1. From https://ubuntu.com/desktop

    Ubuntu has always been free to download, use and share. We believe in the power of open source software; Ubuntu could not exist without its worldwide community of voluntary developers.

    From https://ubuntu.com/licensing:

    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.

    Anybody, including you and your organization, can freely install Ubuntu as much as you like without purchasing any licenses, ever.

    • In this case, "free software" is a specific term, meaning that you can download and modify the software source code without asking anybody's permission, and you can redistribute the software to others without asking anybody's permission.

    An enterprise-wide roll-out of Ubuntu may look different from a roll-out of chromebooks or Windows laptops: Hardware incompatibility, Admin access, and enterprise infrastructure can be quite different from a Windows or Chrome environment. Test, test, test because students and other users will find your weak spots!

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