[TriLUG] quick, name an open source monitoring solution

[Aaron Joyner]

When in doubt, trust what's distributed.  I pulled the latest copies
of the source for nagios core, and nagios-plugins, as linked from
their website (and ultimately distributed via sourceforge).
nagios-core is distributed with a GPLv2 LICENSE file, nagios-plugins
is distributed with a GPLv3 COPYING file.  Thus, I'd say that at least
as of the current source code, Nagios is about as open source as it
gets.

Their website does indicate that they provide "Nagios XI", which is
"an enterprise-class monitoring and alerting solution built on Nagios
Core and other proven OSS components."  I don't see any conflict with
selling a commercial product that's value-add built on top of open
source components.  To quote from the GPL (both versions share this
wording), "Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that
you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge
for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if
you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in
new free programs, and that you know you can do these things."

Nothing to see here,
Aaron S. Joyner


On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Bill Farrow <bill at arrowsreach.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 1:27 AM, Jack Hill <jackhill at jackhill.us> wrote:
>>
> Forking is good, it provides a safety valve if the maintainer or
> company goes in a different direction.
>
> The Nagios website doesn't make it obvious which license there
> products are under, but Wikipedia says that Nagios is under GPLv2.
> Perhaps the new frontend products are under a different license.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagios
>
>> P.S. I have no idea why they think commercial is synonymous with
>> proprietary.
>
> We need to actively jump on this and correct this particular FUD,
> otherwise people who are less informed will associate Open Source with
> non-commercial behavior.  Next they will call us communists... oh
> wait, that was Bill Gates circa 2005.
>
>
> Bill
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