Question about "personal use" of PUEL license?

[abcuser]

Hi,
I would like to use VirtualBox PUEL edition in business (I need remote access to VirtualBox not available in VirtualBox OSE edition). Hardware server is run by Ubuntu host (Linux) and VirtualBox installed on that host. VirtualBox would be run in headless mode running Ubuntu guest and relation database server in it. At single time there would be at least 10 end users accessing relation database server through application server. But there would be nobody to access VirtualBox to display guest computer remotely. Only I will display VirtualBox guest remotely to administer guest OS if needed.

According to second paragraph there is a text describing "personal use":

Code: Select all

“Personal Use” requires that you use the Product on the same Host Computer where you installed it yourself and that no more than one client connect to that Host Computer at a time for the purpose of displaying Guest Computers remotely.

Sure, I will be the only one to use VirtualBox from my notebook to administer VirtualBox guest if required. All other users (actually end-users) will just use database server through application server. If I am the only one to access VirtualBox "displaying Guest Computer remotely" is this kind of use threated as personal use and so I can use it free of charge or I need to buy some licenses to legally use it in this kind of purpose?
Regards

[JshWright]

I'd play it safe and use the OSE version. Since you're running a linux server as a guest anyway, VRDP wouldn't be as necessary.

[sandervl]

Sounds to me like the kind of use covered by the PUEL license.

[AntiMatter]

PUEL: Only ONE user can connect to the host computer. OSE: no limit, but Remote Display Protocol is not implemented so no one can connect.

Would you consider to relax the PUEL clause a little bit? ESXi, KVM, Citrix Xen are all free.

[abcuser]

PUEL: Only ONE user can connect to the host computer. OSE: no limit, but Remote Display Protocol is not implemented so no one can connect.

Would you consider to relax the PUEL clause a little bit? ESXi, KVM, Citrix Xen are all free.

I am having quite a big problem in my company where there are big ESXi fans. My biggest argument was VirtualBox is open source, but I see now I need to run PUEL version because I need remote access. But there is a limit only one user can administer server = "displaying Guest Computers remotely". I am afraid using VirtualBox and then some other administrator will access VBox and in this case we have legal problem. I know no-one from Sun can see me doing so, but I don't like to use illegal - because my main argument of using open-source software gets no argument at all. If I lose my main argument I see no VirtaulBox future in my company.

I think Sun should consider to relax PUEL license little bit. I know it is probably hard, because business model gets changed but if VirtualBox would still like to compete something should be changed.

Maybe PUEL should be relax in the way that only one user can use it at the same time, but allowing multiple users to use it in different time. This would be better, but still not so good as competition.

[sandervl]

I'd say the 'no more than one client connected at a time (RDP)' is quite clear. It doesn't tell you this client always needs to be one and the same person.

[AntiMatter]

I know no-one from Sun can see me doing so, but I don't like to use illegal - because my main argument of using open-source software gets no argument at all. If I lose my main argument I see no VirtaulBox future in my company.

Same here, and mine is even stricter, Sun doesn't need to see me do, my boss will fire me before.

I'd say the 'no more than one client connected at a time (RDP)' is quite clear. It doesn't tell you this client always needs to be one and the same person.

But the limit is still one person. I am going to file a feature request, I hope Oracle with receive it positively. Either allow multi access to PUEL edition or enable the RDP in the Open Source Edition.

[SSCBrian]

I'd say the 'no more than one client connected at a time (RDP)' is quite clear. It doesn't tell you this client always needs to be one and the same person.

Oh, I thought it was *any* type of connection, not just RDP? So, using it as an HTTP server or for SSH connections would be legal then?

[Sasquatch]

I'd say the 'no more than one client connected at a time (RDP)' is quite clear. It doesn't tell you this client always needs to be one and the same person.

Oh, I thought it was *any* type of connection, not just RDP? So, using it as an HTTP server or for SSH connections would be legal then?

Yes, it's pure the OS the VM is running. It doesn't matter if it hosts a forum with 50 users. Nor does it matter if you use RDP itself, I believe it's about the VRDP server feature that's limited. But I'm not sure about that, a dev like Frank or Sander might shine some light on this.

[sandervl]

I'd say the 'no more than one client connected at a time (RDP)' is quite clear. It doesn't tell you this client always needs to be one and the same person.

Oh, I thought it was *any* type of connection, not just RDP? So, using it as an HTTP server or for SSH connections would be legal then?

The restriction applies to the following part: 'that no more than one client connect to that Host Computer at a time for the purpose of displaying Guest Computers remotely.'

Strictly speaking that might not be restricted to RDP only; ssh or remote x would be a gray area if you take the wording literally, but in those cases the OSE version could suffice. Basically we don't want people to roll out big VDI projects based on our VRDP server without a proper license.

Http or any other server connections don't fall in the category of displaying a guest computer remotely.

[sandervl]

PUEL: Only ONE user can connect to the host computer. OSE: no limit, but Remote Display Protocol is not implemented so no one can connect.

Would you consider to relax the PUEL clause a little bit? ESXi, KVM, Citrix Xen are all free.

If that were true, none of these companies would make any money. There's always a catch.

You can remote connect to the OSE version using ssh, remote X or the builtin MS RDP server of Windows guests. If you need our VRDP server, there are some restrictions, but I'd say it's fairly liberal. Our employees need to be paid too.

[spamless]

Would be nice if somewhere in the FAQ it or, even better, on the forum registration page it said what the heck "PUEL" means. I figured it out from context reading this and other threads that came up when I searched the FAQ, but when I just registered for the forum I had no idea. I only picked it because I knew I didn't have OSE and that was the only option that didn't. (The registration form also doesn't have any Ubuntu version listed past 8.10, for what it's worth.)

Anyway, I'm still not entirely sure what the acronym stands for, but I'll guess: Personal-Use End-User License. In any case, my bet is on the "L" standing for "License." So tacking on another "license" in the thread subject is like a visit to the ATM machine.

[SSCBrian]

I think it's "Personal Use, Educational License".

[abcuser]

PUEL stands for "Personal Use and Evaluation License"

[abcuser]

Hi,
you know I have been thinking... Maybe all of this fuss was just too much. Most probably OSE version will do well for most of the users. There are no such (how many users can do something) limitations using OSE. If Windows host then using "Windows Remote Desktop" program can access host and then run VirtualBox and inside that run another Windows. If Linux is used then ssh or "ssh -X" (for graphic display) can be used to display computer remotely.

I would test this already on Windows host, but as I see from build instructions http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Windows% ... structions there are multiple property tools from Microsoft required to build OSE on Windows host. I don't have all this tools.

But if building OSE for Linux host I see there is no deb package generated at the end and after installing package manager will no nothing about VirtualBox so some library etc could be accidently removed and so VBox not working any more, this sounds to me too risky to play with this kind of solution.

I would love to see if Sun would provide OSE deb packages for Linux hosts and OSE installation binaries for Windows host.
Regards