MiniGUI Licensing Policy
MiniGUI, including MiniGUI core and components, such as mGi, mGp, mG3d, mGUtils, mGPlus, mGEff, mGNCS, and mGNCS4Touch, is released under the GPL (GPLv2 or GPLv3). So any link to MiniGUI must follow GPL. If you cannot accept GPL, you need to be licensed from FMSoft (Contact Us).
Free Use for Those Who Are 100% GPL
If your application is licensed under GPL, you are free and welcome to ship any GPL software of Beijing FMSoft Technologies Co., Ltd. ('FMSoft' for short) with your application. By "application" we mean any type of software application, system, tool or utility. For doing this, you do not need a separate signed agreement with FMSoft, because the GPL text is sufficient. But we do recommend you to be in touch with us as there usually are good opportunities for partnership and co-marketing.
Free Use for Those Who Never Copy, Modify or Distribute
As long as you never distribute (internally or externally) the MiniGUI in any way, you are free to use it for powering your application, irrespective of whether your application is under GPL license or not.
More specifically:
- Modifying - You are allowed to modify MiniGUI source code any way you like. If you distribute the modified version, all changes, all interface code and all code that connects directly or indirectly to the interface code fall under GPL.
- Copying - You are allowed to copy MiniGUI binaries and source code, but when you do so, the copies will fall under the GPL.
Commercial Use for Everyone Else
If your application is not licensed under GPL and you intend to distribute MiniGUI software (be that internally or externally), you must first obtain a commercial license to the MiniGUI software in question.
More specifically:
- If you want to use MiniGUI on an operating system which is not compatible with GPL (most commercial RTOSes, such as VxWorks and ThreadX), you need a commercial license for the software.
- If you link MiniGUI in your non-GPL application, you need a commercial license for the software.
- If you use MiniGUI within your organization and you don't want to risk it falling under the GPL license, you are welcome to purchase a commercial license.
- Many users opt for the commercial license simply because under it FMSoft takes responsibility for its products. Under the GPL license, there are no warranties or representations from the developer (i.e. from FMSoft).
Exceptions and Free Commercial Licenses
If you represent a non-profit organization or an academic institution, we recommend you to put your own application under GPL. Thereby you are free to use MiniGUI software free of charge under the GPL license. (We also believe that if you have strong reasons not to go GPL, you also have the monetary means to purchase commercial licenses.)
If you are a private individual, you are free to use MiniGUI software for your personal applications, as long as you do not distribute them.
Please note that even if you ship a free demo version of your own application, the above rules apply.
Finally, What Is the Recommendation
To all commercial organizations, we do recommend the commercial license. Not only does this free you from the far-reaching requirements of the GPL license, it also gives you a license letter from FMSoft where we assume responsibility for our product. The GPL license is an "as is" license with no warranties whatsoever.
To all GPL/Open Source enthusiasts we do recommend our products under the GPL license. We believe that FMSoft is the world's one of the most important company that offers all its software under the GPL license. So help yourself to the MiniGUI and feel the freedom of free software!
To anyone in doubt, we recommend the commercial license. It is never wrong. Thanks to our cost-effective way of producing software, we are able to sell our commercial licenses at prices well under the industry average, and this is without compromising our own profitability.