Re: About distribution of modified copy of Debian OS

Thanks Daniel for the quick and helpfull response.

The business focus will be the course, and the image is only a way of having all the students begin the lessons from the same starting point.

Thanks again for your help,

sincerelly,

Borja

On Fri, May 19, 2023, 19:07 Daniel Hakimi <dan.j.hakimi@gmail.com> wrote:

As long as you comply with the GPL, this is perfectly acceptable. Note that this includes making source code available and allowing licensees to redistribute your OS freely, so charging for your version might not be the most effective way go make money—I could just throw up an iso torrent for free—but it could work.

RedHat, for example, charges for RHEL (packaged with support). CentOS was a famous fork that originally only changed trademarkable features (names and logos) and charged one vent per copy. This didn't stop RedHat from becoming a profitable venture, of course.

On Fri, May 19, 2023, 12:51 Borja Sanchez <borja.sanchez.leirado@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Debian Project Team,

My name is Borja Sanchez, writting from Spain. I am currently planning to run a paid course where I will distribute a modified version of Debian, rebranded and renamed. This software will be offered at no extra cost as part of the course materials.

In addition to this, I wish to inform you that I am also considering charging a fee for this customized software in the future, separate from the course fees.

The custom OS version will be built from the latest Debian stable version, by running a live-build process to build a ISO image with custom packages, scripts, assests pre-installed.

With these points in mind, I have two key questions:

1. I would like to confirm that these proposed actions comply with the GPL's guidelines and Debian's policies.

2. I am interested to know if there are any other considerations, requirements, or permissions I should be aware of before proceeding with this plan.

Your expert advice and guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. I value your work and aim to respect the open-source principles that Debian upholds.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Borja Sanchez