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Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com
Asked: 2014-04-28 04:08:14 +0800 CST

What is the difference between Multiverse and Partner sources

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If I understand https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu correctly, both are not free and not supported by Canonical. So what is the difference between them?

Where can I get a list of the partners and their repositories? Is there an official (non wiki) documentation from Canonical on this subject?

Specifically:

  1. Can multiverse software be closed source? If not, how and why can non free software be open source?

  2. What are "licensing requirements"? An example would be great.

  3. Closed source does not imply proprietary?

  4. How is proprietary different from non free?

  5. Partner software gets support from whom? Enterprises which have contracts with Canonical stating they will provide support? Is this what partners are?

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1 Answers

  1. Multiverse

    • non free
    • licensing requirements
    • no support

    Partner

    • proprietary
    • closed source
    • support

    1. Can multiverse software be closed source? If not, how and why can non free software be open source?

      • Yes, it contains "software restricted by copyright and legal issues". That can include closed source.
      • Private software can be open source and non-free.

    2. What are "licensing requirements"? An example would be great.

      • mp3, mp4 support are the most common examples in multiverse. We can use them. For Ubuntu to have it installed by default Canonical would need to pay a license.

    3. Closed source does not imply proprietary?

      • That is the wrong way around: proprietary does not imply closed source. vBulletin is an example. It is proprietary but pay a license and you get the source that you can alter but not distribute.

    4. How is proprietary different from non free?

    5. Partner software gets support from whom? Enterprises which have contracts with Canonical stating they will provide support? Is this what partners are?

      • From the partners.
      • And yes. See ubuntu.com/partner for a list of them (both hardware and software).

    More on this can be found on the wikipedia page for Ubuntu

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