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> Because Gisselquist Technology, LLC, owns all of the code for the ZipCPU and its peripherals, proprietary licenses may be purchased.

lnsru 7y ago
It’s open source, but not free. MicroBlaze MCS is free, but not open source: https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/mb-mcs.html https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/mb-mcs.html Thank you very much for this comment about proprietary license!
- jhauris 7y ago
  I don't understand why you're saying it isn't free. Are you saying that because it's dual licensed it's not free? Users would still be able to modify and fork the GPL version in all the normal ways.
  - lnsru 7y ago
    If I want to use it in my closed source project I must pay to Gisselquist Technology, LLC. Or I am wrong here?
    - zipcpu 7y ago
      If you want to use it in your closed source project, give me a holler. I'm sure we could work something out. Even if we don't, I'd love to have the opportunity to hear from you, meet you, say hello, and encourage you in any way I can.
  - TomVDB 7y ago
    They could modify and fork it, but they would also have to release the source code of their full project. That makes it a no-go for regular commercial projects. At least, that's my interpretation: it's always a struggle to apply software oriented licenses to hardware.
    - antisemiotic 7y ago
      Last time I checked, "freedom to include the code in a proprietary product" was not among the freedoms considered essential by the FSF. So GPL with an option to get a commercial license would, at worst, make it free but not open-source.
zipcpu 7y ago
Realistically, those who've wanted to use the ZipCPU tend to just chat with me about it and we work out a handshake agreement or some such. Were someone to want to use it in a commercial product, I'd be more interested in some form of compensation. For now it's filling the education role quite nicely -- which is somewhat of a surprise for me since I never saw that coming when I started working on it in the first place.
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  Awesome! Love that you are flexible in that regard. I was merely pointing out to GP that it wasn’t “only GPL licensed”, there are other options you provide.

lnsru 7y ago

It’s open source, but not free. MicroBlaze MCS is free, but not open source: https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/mb-mcs.html https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/mb-mcs.html Thank you very much for this comment about proprietary license!

jhauris 7y ago
I don't understand why you're saying it isn't free. Are you saying that because it's dual licensed it's not free? Users would still be able to modify and fork the GPL version in all the normal ways.
- lnsru 7y ago
  If I want to use it in my closed source project I must pay to Gisselquist Technology, LLC. Or I am wrong here?
  - zipcpu 7y ago
    If you want to use it in your closed source project, give me a holler. I'm sure we could work something out. Even if we don't, I'd love to have the opportunity to hear from you, meet you, say hello, and encourage you in any way I can.
- TomVDB 7y ago
  They could modify and fork it, but they would also have to release the source code of their full project. That makes it a no-go for regular commercial projects. At least, that's my interpretation: it's always a struggle to apply software oriented licenses to hardware.
  - antisemiotic 7y ago
    Last time I checked, "freedom to include the code in a proprietary product" was not among the freedoms considered essential by the FSF. So GPL with an option to get a commercial license would, at worst, make it free but not open-source.

zipcpu 7y ago

Realistically, those who've wanted to use the ZipCPU tend to just chat with me about it and we work out a handshake agreement or some such. Were someone to want to use it in a commercial product, I'd be more interested in some form of compensation. For now it's filling the education role quite nicely -- which is somewhat of a surprise for me since I never saw that coming when I started working on it in the first place.

jsjohnst 7y ago
Awesome! Love that you are flexible in that regard. I was merely pointing out to GP that it wasn’t “only GPL licensed”, there are other options you provide.