using virtual box in company pc

[patrick21]

Hello,

Do I need a licence if I install virtual box in PC of my company ?

Patrick

[Perryg]

No.

[patrick21]

is this personal use, so I don't need a licence ?

[Rootman]

Virtualbox is distributed as Open Source under the GNU license. The only restricted part is the oracle Extension pack which is free for personal use and requires a license for commercial use. Personal use on a corporate machine is always a dicey subject. If you are doing ANYTHING that benefits your business then it technically is commercial use. If you are just playing around using a VM for exclusive personal use then it is probably entirely private use .

See: https://www.virtualbox.org/

[Perryg]

Actually this link spells it out better https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ
Since the source code is licensed in GPL2 you have the right to use and modify the code as you see fit as long as you adhere to the GPL2 restrictions (you should read up on that as well). Basically you need to provide any modifications to the next level up (Oracle). What you can not use is the closed source portion (the Extension Pack) for commercial gain.

With all that said You can check out the pricing for the full version. It's $50.00 US. Not a lot of money for the entire product.

[Nitrous]

Has there been any kind of change in Virtual Box Licence between versions 4.2 and 4.3?

[socratis]

I don't know for sure, but I think not. Did you check by any chance?

[klaus]

Since VirtualBox 4.0 (no licensing/structuring change since then whatsoever) the open source parts of VirtualBox (the 'base package' - what Oracle and others provide in the form of OS-specific installers, e.g. for Windows, various Linux distributions, Mac OS X and Solaris) are covered by GPLv2. So anyone can use them for whatever purpose he likes, including commercial use and what not. BTW, GPLv2 doesn't require passing source code changes upstream, it requires passing sources to the people who receive the binaries. That said, we still strongly encourage upstreaming any useful changes...

There's a 2nd part of VirtualBox, fully named "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack", which is NOT open source. It contains proprietary components (USB2, VRDP, ...) which are either licensed under the PUEL (allowing free use for personal, educational and evaluation purposes) or purchased from Oracle (allowing any use, including commercial with central roll-out, with separately available support covering the entire product). Note that PUEL's definition of "personal" doesn't include all commercial uses. As long as the user installs VirtualBox himself (any deployment solution or an admin installing VirtualBox for him is not allowed though), it is still free. Of course the support option might still be interesting in companies which leave the install to the employee, because having paid support gives access to the Oracle support system, with the possibility to request fixes for bugs. The best-effort support offered for the entire community on virtualbox.org is just that: best effort.

[El_Lobo]

Hey Klaus,

just one question on this older thread for clarification.

As long as the user installs VirtualBox himself (any deployment solution or an admin installing VirtualBox for him is not allowed though), it is still free.

As I understand the installing of VirtualBox is always free.
So shouldn't this be more precisly?

As long as the user installs the VirtualBox Extension Pack himself (any deployment solution or an admin installing VirtualBox Extension Pack for him is not allowed though), it is still free.

Thanks for any feedback!
regards,

[scottgus1]

Yes that edit would seem to be correct. Virtualbox can be installed by anyone any time anywhere, even at work, even to run a company, as many times as he wants.

The license page for the Extension Pack has changed, though, since this thread was last commented on. The Licensing page says:

Personal Use is defined in the PUEL as an instance of the VirtualBox Extension Pack that is downloaded onto a single Host Computer and accessed on the same Host Computer or on a single client that is connected to that Host Computer for the purpose of displaying Guest Computers remotely.

Note that there is no mention of whether this is done in a business setting or not. You have to download and install the Extension pack yourself. Your IT department can't do it for you. But you can do it for your business and even run your business on it. IANAL, but it seems you can teach your small company's 5 employees to install the Extension Pack themselves, too, and that would still fit the license.

If you want the IT dept. to handle the Extension Pack then you are legally bound to buy the Enterprise license. But:

Oracle VM VirtualBox Enterprise Named User Plus licenses must be purchased in an initial quantity of at least 100.

And the Licenses cost $61 each as of this post, so that's $6100 minimum. It has been said on this forum that Oracle has priced out the little guy because big corporate installations will have dozens of the same computer, so are easier to support. (See viewtopic.php?f=36&t=67489&start=15#p319591, MichalN's posts.) The help desk can't handle the little guy so the licenses are priced beyond his/her wallet.

[klaus]

Right, the PUEL (and its limitations of the free use) only applies to the VirtualBox Extension Pack. IANAL, so please refer to the PUEL and the corresponding Licensing FAQ. The wording was changed recently to be more precise (at least from the perspective of the legal department).

If anything is unclear in the current license text or FAQ, let us know and we'll ask the legal department to sort it out...

[socratis]

And the Licenses cost $61 each as of this post, so that's $6100 minimum.

On sale now! Now ONLY at 50 $/pop: https://shop.oracle.com/apex/f?p=dstore ... 2137513432

[klaus]

Price didn't change in a long time... $50 per named user plus license, and $11 per license and year for support.

[socratis]

Damn it, I missed that 11$/yr, 6pt font, letters at the bottom...

[klaus]

Support is optional. There's some "are you really, really sure" confirmations you need to nod off if you want to delete it from the order.

I'm personally still dreaming of selling smaller quantities than 100, without a support option - but I have no idea when, if ever, this would be happening.