Linked by Steve Barnhart on Tue 18th Nov 2003 01:36 UTC
I recently picked up a copy of SuSE 9.0 Professional. I have never used or been familiar with a SuSE product before as I've only used Mandrake, Red Hat, and a bit of Debian. After using Red Hat for a while I decided to evaluate SuSE and I am now sorry for not having tried it sooner.
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"No, [YaSY] emphatically does not [fall into the category of free software]. YaST cannot be sold, not at a profit anyway. Software whose binaries cannot be sold for profit is not Free Software by the FSF definition."
OK, I've just double checked on www.fsf.org for the definition of free software, and on www.suse.com for the YaST licence. It does on the face of it comply with freedoms 0-3 as defined on www.fsf.org, however you're absolutely correct that it then goes on to say that freedom 3 includes to right to charge a fee without requiring permission from the original author. The YaST license _specifically_ requires this permission from anyone wanting to charge a fee for distribution of YaST or YaST-derived works.
So I stand humbled, it's not Free Software. The reader will have to make their own decision as to whether they are willing to accept this on their systems - I am, but many would not be.