As long as you keep the entire gpl data on whatever you give away, you can give out as many copies as you can afford.
 
If you are just trying to help people see how Linux works - to get them to try it out, make copies of 'LiveCDs'. That way, they won't have to make changes to their hard drives. You can start a local user's group for whatever you want, regardless of what the license says. There are restrictions, but these are to keep people who use the source code to make their own software from preventing you from copying and distributing that software. Here is the appropriate part of the GPL:
 

Quote:When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, notprice. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
 
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
 
I hope this helps. Good luck in your user group! 8)

OK, without starting a war, RedHat 9 is the most stable and tested.
 
Of course, always check out if your hardware is supported, before venturing into a distro.
 
This is a common problem, just like any OS. The newer the hardware, the less likely that it is compatible with older distros.
 
This is a common source of confusion. People are frequently suprised that their hardware is not supported. So, if Redhat 9 (as an example - not necessarily accurate) was released in 2001 and your new nForce chipset motherboard was released in 2003 (well do the math).
 
There is always a process of catch-up.
 
In terms of the Linux licensing issue, most distros are GPL, meaning general public license. You can copy and distribute it freely. The exception is if a specific distro has a policy otherwise.
 
For example, Lindows is a distro that you pay for. They do not distribute it freely (except lately as a promotion). You pay a fee for the license as an "insider" user.
 
My disclaimer - read the licensing policy. See what it says. Does it say that it can be distributed freely?
 
Putting it up on a website is another matter. For the free distros, you can burn as many copies that you like. I believe that there may be some restrictions on mirroring sites and distributing the distro on your web site.
 
You may have heard about the SCO lawsuits, They claim to have a copywrite on the original linux code. Well, we will wait and see. There are too many volunteer code programmers that have been out there for many years working on Linux code for the public, I believe, to make this valid.
 
Again, always read the distro's licensing policy. They will always tell you if the distro is GPL and can or can not be distributed freely.
 
I see that malllion got in ahead of me. His comments are right on the money.

Quote:I see that malllion got in ahead of me. His comments are right on the money.

Sorry, Danleff - long weekend, and all my family and friends are away somwhere. I'm bored. I clicked on any forum that had new messages and I replied to anything that seemed like I could answer reasonably. I didn't realise that this was to You and Dapper until I had hit the 'Submit' button... 8)

Hey, this forum is for everybody! Not just for us two old foggies.

You're right ,Danleff and the first sentence in the original post on this thread
was "Actually ,this post is to all members.".
I have RedHat 9.0 up and running. Anaconda won't run on HP551w but runs
great on this WalMart eMachine and older HP. Arklinux is the only distro I've
tried that installs on the 551w correctly. It installs itself with no problem and findes
everything but scanners.
 
Thank everyone for the help.
 
I found RedHats license interesting in that you can distribute the distro freely but
requires that you change the the logos and trademark to whatever you want as long as you
remove references to RedHat.

Quote:You're right ,Danleff and the first sentence in the original post on this thread
was "Actually ,this post is to all members.".
I have RedHat 9.0 up and running. Anaconda won't run on HP551w but runs
great on this WalMart eMachine and older HP. Arklinux is the only distro I've
tried that installs on the 551w correctly. It installs itself with no problem and findes
everything but scanners.

Thank everyone for the help.

I found RedHats license interesting in that you can distribute the distro freely but
requires that you change the the logos and trademark to whatever you want as long as you
remove references to RedHat.

What is Arklinux like? It is one (of probably many) that I have not heard of yet. ;(

Well I'm a GUI user.(Trying to learn the CLI but those old
commodore and amiga commands that keep popping out of my fingertips
just don't work.)
Anyway, take RedHat 9, with a menu navigation as easy and clear
as the other OS add a "Mission Control" which appears to be a clone
of XP's control panel.
Point and Click in Mission control;
"install software" brings up synaptic.
"Desktop and appearance" gets a very nice menu of relative KDE modules.
I could go on like that for a very long post.
To make a long story short, as a winXp user,I feel right at home
with ARKLinux.
Basicaly ,it's Linux with an easy to navigate GUI.After about an
hour exploring, I was getting around as easily as in XP.(Didn't know
where I was going but I was getting there.)
ARKLinux was obviously designed with nubees and us refugees from the
other OS in mind.It's Linux simplified.
It's a pretty fast DL from "ibiblio.org" also from "linuxiso.org".
Both sites have new distros added everytime I check.

yeah since i signed up and been posting so many questions they have been a major help infact i agree this whole site is both informative and helpful and the members are real nice

I agree! This is the most helpful Linux forum I've found. I'm quite new to Linux and doing better, but still get in trouble if everything doesn't work perfectly and need help. When I was first starting out with Linux, I tried to get help on several Linux forums. Generally, I ended up with some 13 year old geek telling me to go back to using Windows. Not the case here. I've received nothing but help and courtesy. Thanks to everyone!
 
-zenarcher

Don't discount yourselves as well! I've seen y'all give good advice to new users.
 
I've been thinking about why it is we get so many complete "Noobies" here as opposed to some of the other Linux boards I visit. Since hardware problems are the very first obstacle new users run into, they're naturally gonna seek help in that area of learning Linux first.
 
zenarcher, I too can remember the first time I sought help on a Linux board and had an equally unpleasant experience. I really didn't understand the concept of "becoming root." Although I did get help, I also got a few snide remarks from a few of the more experienced.
 
Even if you've only had a single week trying to learn Linux, that's week of experience that can be used to help out the next new user who comes along.

Yeah, this forum is great, freindly, no attitude, and everyone is strong in different areas. I know I have problems with trying to break things down into noob terms but someone usually bails me out... (the dans) and I still pick up tip, tricks, and better ways to do stuff from alot of the people on this board.

I have to agree with the Dapper. I remember my first Linux days. I was lucky enough to have a mentor on a forum who guided me through. I remember bugging them quite a bit...but boy was it helpful. I eventually became an admin on the site (which now is gone).
 
The idea is not to answer all the questions asked...nobody has all that knowledge. But, rather getting people involved and stimulate thought toward solutions... to think through the problem.
 
I also agree with egorgry...everybody has their own strengths and eventually someone has a path to a solution.
 
The only attitude here is collective knowledge!

Originally posted by danleff:

Quote:The idea is not to answer all the questions asked...nobody has all that knowledge. But, rather getting people involved and stimulate thought toward solutions... to think through the problem.
 
I couldn't have said it better danleff. You don't have to know all the answers to help someone search for a solution. You just have to take the time to help them look!