[Mono-list] Mono Licensing for Dedicated/Embedded Devices

[Chris Howie]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 3:43 PM, Praerit <praeritg at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> hi,
> We are building a client/server solution using Mono and C#.  Clients are
> going to be traditional applications installed on PC/Mac systems and
> eventually mobile devices also.  Servers however may be installed on
> dedicated servers or embedded server devices.  Both client & servers are
> expected to be distributed widely.
> We do not expect or want our customers to be updating Mono bits independent
> of our solution - particularly for the servers.  We will manage this update
> process for our customers to make sure the end-to-end solution doesn't
> break.
>
> >From reading the FAQ, it seems like there are restrictions with using Mono
> when trying to build such a solution.

IANAL but this is my understanding:

1. If you don't modify Mono at all then you can just point back to the
Mono project for sources.  (For some components e.g. the class library
you don't need to do this *even if* you modify them.)

2. I am not sure if you have to give people the option to tinker with
your Mono install.  Depends if parts of Mono are GPLv3 or not.  At any
rate you could always document the process somewhere but state that
tinkering with the system will void their warranty and/or support
contract.  Tinkerers can tinker, and you don't have to support them.
Everyone wins.

Miguel and others will have better advice.

-- 
Chris Howie
http://www.chrishowie.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Crazycomputers