Open Source Operating System licenses

There are two general groups of general purpose Operating Systems: Open Source ones and proprietary. The most popular Open Source ones are: GNU/Linux, Android, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly BSD, Haiku and Minix. Two main proprietary Operating Systems are Windows and macOS (althogh some parts are Open Source).

Proprietary software (non-free software) is computer software for which the software’s publisher of another person retain intellectual property right.

Open Source licenses grant permission for anybody to use, modify and share licensed software for any purpose, subject to conditions preserving the provenance and openness of the software.

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice.