This is a list of notable software packages which were published under a proprietary software license but later released as free and open-source software, or into the public domain.
In some cases, the company continues to publish proprietary releases alongside the non-proprietary version.
Title | Original release | Relicensed release | Initial free relicense | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adobe Flex | 2004 | 2007 | MPL | Since renamed to Apache Flex and changed to Apache License 2.0 |
AdvFS | 1990s | 2008 | GPL v2 | HP opened up AdvFS from Tru64 UNIX. |
AOLserver | 1999 | GPL / modified MPL | [1] | |
Apache Derby | 1996 | 2004 | Apache License 2.0 | Relational database management system originally called Cloudscape; released as free and open-source software by IBM in 2004 and donated to the Apache Software Foundation |
Apache Wave | 2009 | 2009 | Apache License | Formerly Google Wave.[2] |
Apus Game Engine | 2008 | 2020 | 3-clause BSD License | Released to the public by the developer after reaching a Patreon goal.[3] The source code for Astral Heroes (one of the games using the engine) was released to patrons.[4] |
Astrolog | 1991 | 2015 | GPL v2+ / custom permissive | Has always been freeware and open source, but had a custom attribution demanding permissive license. |
Atom | 2014 | 2014 | MIT License | [5] |
BDS C Compiler | 1979 | 2002 | Public domain | Released by author |
BitKeeper | 2000 | 2016 | Apache License 2.0 | |
Bitstream Vera (font) | 2003 | custom | Through the efforts of Bitstream and the GNOME Foundation | |
Blender | 1996 | 2003 | GPL v2+ | |
BlitzBASIC (Blitz3D, BlitzPlus, BlitzMax) | 2001 | 2014 | zlib License | BlitzPlus was released as Open Source on 28 April 2014 under the zlib License on github.com.[6][7] Blitz3D follow on 3 August 2014.[8][9] BlitzMax was open sourced on 21 September 2015.[10] |
Cafu Engine | 2000 | 2009 | GPL v3 | Originally released under the GPLv3 (with an option for a commercial license),[11] in 2016 was re-licensed under the MIT License.[12] |
Catacomb | 1989 | 2014 | GPL v2 | [13] |
Catacomb II | 1991 | 2014 | GPL v2 | [13] |
Catacomb Abyss | 1992 | 2014 | GPL v2 | [13] |
Catacomb Armageddon | 1992 | 2014 | GPL v2 | [13] |
Catacomb 3D | 1991 | 2014 | GPL v2 | [13] |
C*Base | 1980s | 2003 | GPL v2+ | |
CDE | 1993 | 2012 | LGPL v2+ | [14][15] |
ChakraCore | 2009 | 2016 | MIT | On 13 January 2016 Microsoft released ChakraCore under the MIT License on GitHub.[16] ChakraCore is essentially the same as the Chakra engine that powers the Microsoft Edge browser, but with platform-agnostic bindings, i.e. without the specific interfaces utilised within the Windows Universal App platform.[17] |
CMU Sphinx | 2000 | Custom BSD-style license | [18][19] | |
CodeXL | 2016 | MIT License | ||
Coherent | 1980 | 2015 | 3-clause BSD License | [20] |
CP/M family | 1974 | 1997,[21][22][23] 2001,[24][25][26][27] 2014[28] | [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] | |
CuneiForm | 1993 | 2008 | BSD | Optical character recognition software |
Dink Smallwood | 1998 | 2003 | zlib-like | Some game data (e.g. sounds) not released under a free license.[29] |
Doom engine | 1993 | 1999 | GPL v2 | Originally released under a restrictive license on 23 December 1997.[30] The game code for Heretic and Hexen: Beyond Heretic (other two games using the Doom engine) was also released under the GPL.[31] |
DOS.MASTER | end 1980s | 2000 | public domain software | DOS.MASTER is a program for Apple II computers which allows Apple DOS 3.3 programs to be placed on a hard drive or 3.5-inch floppy disk and run from ProDOS. Written by Glen Bredon as a commercial program during the late 1980s, it was released into the public domain by his family after the author's death.[32] |
Duke Nukem 3D | 1996 | 2003 | GPL | Game code only, no data, no engine. |
Etherpad | 2008 | 2009 | Apache License 2.0 | Open sourced after being purchased by Google |
Extensible Storage Engine | 1994 | 2021 | MIT License | |
Falcon | 2007 | GPL | [33] | |
FAR Manager | 1996 | 2007 | BSD | Version 2.0 released as open source. |
File Manager (Windows) | 1990 | April 2018 | MIT | On 6 April 2018, Microsoft released binaries and the source code, licensed under the MIT License, for an improved version of File Manager able to be run on Windows 10.[34][35] This version included changes such as the ability to compile in modern versions of Visual Studio, the ability to compile as a 64-bit application, and numerous usability improvements.[35] |
Fish Fillets | 1998 | 2002 | GPL | |
Free Download Manager | 2003 | 2007 | GPL | Free since version 2.5[36] |
FoundationDB | 2013 | 2018 | Apache License 2.0 | Apple Inc. acquired the founding company in March 2015 and discontinued downloads of the software.[37] In April 2018, Apple open-sourced the database and resumed downloads.[38] |
Game-Maker | 1991 | 2014 | MIT License | After some consultation with the user base, on 12 July 2014 original coder Andy Stone released the Game-Maker 3.0 source code on GitHub, under the MIT License.[39] |
GGPO | 2006 | 2019 | MIT License | On 9 October 2019 Cannon announced on his Twitter account that GGPO was now open source and available under the MIT License.[40] |
Ghostery | 2010 | 2018 | Mozilla Public License 2.0 | Cliqz GmbH acquired Ghostery from Evidon, Inc. in February 2017.[41] Ghostery's software was open-sourced on 8 March 2018.[42] |
GEM family | 1985 | 1999[43] | GPL[43] | Development continued as OpenGEM and FreeGEM.[43] |
Gentium (font) | 2002 | 2005 | OFL | Through the efforts of SIL International |
Gigablast | 2000 | 2013 | Apache License 2.0 | [44] |
Glitch | 2011 | 2013 | Public domain software (CC0) | After Glitch was officially shut down on 9 December 2012,[45] the artwork and most of the source code was released under the public domain-like Creative Commons license CC0 on 18 November 2013.[46][47] On 9 December 2014, a fan project to relaunch Glitch under the name Eleven began alpha testing.[48] |
GLX | 1990s | 2008 | SGI FreeB License | [49] |
GW-BASIC | 1983 | 2020 | MIT License | [50] |
Haaf's Game Engine | 2004 | 2005 | LGPL v2 | Originally released under the LPGL on 25 November 2005,[51] the following year it was re-licensed under the zlib License.[52] On 7 August 2011, the source code used for the Mac OS X and Linux ports of Hammerfight was also released.[53] |
HoverRace | 1996 | 2006 | BSD | |
Hovertank 3D | 1991 | 2014 | GPL v2 | [13] |
ILWIS | 1988 | 2007 | GPL | Released as free and open-source software by ITC |
id Tech 3 | 1999 | 2005 | GPL v2 | The originally released version is the source code to Quake III Arena; the source code for other id Tech 3 games, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy was also released.[54][55] |
id Tech 4 | 2004 | 2011 | GPL v3 | The released version is the source code to Doom 3; in 2012 the source code to Doom 3: BFG Edition was also released.[56] Changes to the code had to be made to avoid use of the patented Carmack's Reverse. |
JaikuEngine | 2006 | 2009 | Apache License 2.0 | [57] |
Java | 1995 | 2006–2007 | GPL | On 13 November 2006, Sun Microsystems released much of Java as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On 8 May 2007 Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code free and open-source, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.[58] |
Jumper 2.0 | 2007 | 2008 | GPL | Publicly announced on 29 September 2008,[59] |
KornShell | 1982 | 2000 | custom; now CPL | |
Le Lisp | 1981 | 2020 | 2-clause BSD | |
LightZone | 2005 | 2012 | 3-clause BSD | Company went out of business |
Marathon 2: Durandal | 1995 | 2000 | GPL | Only the code was released under the GPL. Now known as Aleph One |
Mari0 | 2012 | 2018 | MIT License | Developed using the LÖVE framework and originally available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, it was relicensed to the MIT License on September 29, 2018.[60] |
MiniPanzer and MegaPanzer | GPL | The source code of the programs was released as GPL in 2009 by their author, who retained the copyright.[61] | ||
MINIX | 1987 | 2000 | BSD | |
Motif | 1980s | 2012 | LGPL v2+ | [62] |
Movable Type | 2001 | 2007 | GPL | Weblog software |
MP/M family | 1979 | 1997,[21][22] 2001[24][25][26][27] | [21][22][24][25][26][27] | |
MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 | 1982/1983 | 2018 | MIT License | Originally uploaded by the Computer History Museum in 2014 under a non-commercial license,[63] on 28 September 2018, Microsoft uploaded the source code to GitHub under the MIT License.[64] |
.NET Framework (most components) | 2002 | 2014 | MIT License, Apache License 2.0, BSD license | Starting in 2014 Microsoft released most of their .NET ecosystem software (.NET Micro Framework, .NET Compiler Platform, ASP.NET, Entity Framework, NuGet etc.) under FOSS licenses and shifted the code to a GitHub repository.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76] |
NetBeans | 1997 | 2007 | GPL, CDDL | An integrated development environment (IDE) for Java and other programming languages |
Netscape Enterprise Server | 2009 | BSD | Sun Microsystems open sourced it.[77] | |
Netscape Navigator/Communicator | 1994 | 1998 | MPL | See Mozilla[78][79] |
OpenGL sample implementation | 1992 | 2008 | SGI FreeB License | [49] |
Open Sound System | 1992 | 2007 | GPL, CDDL | |
OpenWRT | ? | 2003 | GPL | As Linksys built the firmware for their WRT54G wireless router also from GPL'ed code,[80] they were required to make the source code available in July 2003.[81][82] |
Performance Co-Pilot | 1993 | 1999 | GPL, LGPL | |
PhysX | 2001 | 2018 | 3-clause BSD License | [83] |
Pinball Construction Set | 1982/1983 | 2013 | MIT License | Source code for the Atari 800 port was released by Bill Budget on 12 February 2013 upon the recovery by Electronic Arts of the original floppies containing the source code.[84] On 24 February 2013, the source code for the original Apple II version was released. |
Plan 9 from Bell Labs | 1992/1995/2000 | 2021 | MIT License | Applies to all the four original versions by Bell Labs.[85] The first two editions were not released to the general public. The Third Edition was released in 2000 under the Plan 9 License, a license not approved by the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative.[86][87] The Fourth Edition was released on 2002 under the Lucent Public License, a free and open-source software license,[88] and relicensed to the GNU GPL v2 (only) on February 8, 2014 by the University of California, Berkeley with the permission of Alcatel-Lucent, the copyright holders at the time.[89] |
PowerShell | 2006 | August 2016 | MIT License | Open sourced by Microsoft in August 2016 on GitHub.[90] |
Qt | 1991 | 1999 | QPL | First released as open source under the QPL. Later released as GPL. Qt 4.5 and later are released under the LGPL. Until 2005 the Windows version was only under a proprietary license. |
Quake II engine | 1997 | 2001 | GPL v2 | |
Quake engine | 1996 | 1999 | GPL v2 | The map sources were also released under the GPL in 2006. In 2000 the game code for Hexen II (another game using the Quake engine) was also released under the GPL.[91] |
RakNet | 2003 | 2014 | 2-clause BSD license | Oculus VR acquired RakNet and open-sourced it shortly after.[92] |
Rebol | 1997 | 2012 | Apache License 2.0 | Following the discussion with Lawrence Rosen,[93] the Rebol version 3 interpreter was released under the Apache 2.0 license on 12 December 2012.[94] |
Rise of the Triad | 1994 | 2002 | GPL | Only the code was released under the GPL. |
Ryzom | 2004 | 2010 | AGPL | [95][96] |
Sandboxie | 2004 | 2020 | GPL v3 | The final 5.40 version was a source code-only release,[97] published a year after Sophos announced its discontinuation of development.[98] |
Second Life client | 2003 | 2007 | GPL v2 | |
Second Reality | 1993 | 2013 | Public domain software (Unlicense) | Released by Jussi Laakkonen, former member of Future Crew, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original release.[99] |
SimCity | 1989 | 2007 | GPL v3 | Free version released as 'Micropolis' [100] |
Solar2D | 2009 | 2019 | GPL v3 | Originally released under the GPLv3 (with an option for a commercial license),[101] the following year it was re-licensed under the MIT License.[102] |
Solaris | 1989 | 2005 | CDDL | Free version released as OpenSolaris |
Soldat | 2002 | 2020 | MIT License/CC BY 4.0 | Originally limited to the game engine,[103] assets followed shortly after under CC-BY 4.0.[104] |
Source Code Control System | 1972 | 2006 | CDDL | |
StarOffice | 1986 | 2000 | LGPL/SISSL[105] | Free version released as OpenOffice.org, later released only under the LGPL. (OpenOffice.org was discontinued in 2011, but forks—most prominently LibreOffice (licensed under the LGPL) and Apache OpenOffice (licensed under the Apache License)—have become its dominant successors.) StarOffice was still released separately under a proprietary license, using mostly the same code, until its discontinuing in 2011; Sun required all contributors to the main OpenOffice.org project assign joint copyright to Sun. |
Star Ruler 2[106] | 2015 | 2018[106] | MIT / CC BY-NC | Source code and assets re-released to the public (except for music, which is kept proprietary). The assets are under a non-free CC BY-NC license. |
Stride | 2014 | 2014 | GPL v3 | Originally released under the GPLv3 (with an option for a commercial license),[107] it became proprietary in 2017,[108] and it was re-licensed to the MIT License in 2018.[109] |
Symbian platform | 2010 | EPL | ||
Synfig | 2001 | 2005 | GPL | Some more information is available on the Synfig history page. |
Tesseract OCR | 1985 | 2005 | Apache License 2.0 | Released as free and open-source software by HP and UNLV |
TextSecure | 2010 | 2011 | GPLv3 | Since renamed to Signal |
Torque 2D/iTorque 2D | 2006/2009 | 2013 | MIT License | A combination of Torque 2D and iTorque,[110] named Torque 2D MIT, was released under the MIT License by GarageGames.[111] The source code for Larva Mortus, a game using the engine, was released on 1 May 2009 under a non-free non-commercial license.[112] |
Torque 3D | 2001 | 2012 | MIT License | Developed for Tribes 2. Released as free and open-source software by GarageGames.[113] |
TurboCASH | 1985 | 2003 | GPL | |
ViewMAX | 1990 | 1999[43] | GPL[43] | |
Visual Studio Code | 2015 | 2015[114] | MIT | |
Warzone 2100 | 1999 | 2004 | GPL | Video game by Eidos Interactive |
Watcom C compiler | 1988 | 2003 | Sybase Open Watcom Public License | Free version released as Open Watcom under a license which is considered non-free by the GNU project[115] but acceptable by the OSI. |
Windows Calculator | 1985 | 2019 | MIT License | Windows 1.0, released in November 1985, included the first iteration of Windows Calculator. In March 2019, Microsoft released the source code of Windows Calculator under the MIT License.[116] |
Windows Console | 2019 | MIT License | In 2019, the Windows Console infrastructure was open-sourced under the MIT License, alongside Windows Terminal.[117] | |
Windows Live Writer | 2012 | 2015 | MIT License | An open source fork of Windows Live Writer was released as Open Live Writer by Microsoft on 9 December 2015.[118] |
Wintermute Engine | 2003 | 2009 | LGPL v3+ | Source code released upon request under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 (or any later version) with the release of the version 1.8.9.[119] Publicly available under the terms of the MIT License since March 23, 2013.[120] The source code for The White Chamber, a game using the engine, was released on 30 June 2008 under a non-free CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 UK license.[121] |
Wire | 2014 | 2016 | GPLv3 | |
Worms? | 1983 | 2021 | MIT License | [122] |
XMind | 2007 | 2008 | EPL and LGPL | Mindmapping software based on the Eclipse RCP |
ZFS | 200? | 2005 | CDDL | Released by Sun Microsystems under an open-source license in 2005.[123] Due to a FSF announced license incompatibility of the GPL with the CDDL ZFS wasn't directly integrated in Linux, but in the BSDs or MacOS due to their permissive licensed kernel which offers better license compatibility. After the later owner Oracle didn't released after version 28, the community forked to OpenZFS.[124] |
As promised, here is the source code of the Astral Towers game recently published on Steam. It can be compiled with Delphi Community Edition.
[…] Let this email represent a right to use, distribute, modify, enhance and otherwise make available in a nonexclusive manner the CP/M technology as part of the "Unofficial CP/M Web Site" with its maintainers, developers and community. I further state that as Chairman and CEO of Lineo, Inc. that I have the right to do offer such a license. […] Bryan Sparks […]CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Dec 23rd, 1997: John Carmack has released the DOOM Source Code on our ftp site. More information can be found in the readme.
Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. released the source code for GEM and ViewMAX under the GNU Public License in mid April, following years of speculation over GEM's future. Caldera bought the GEM sources from Novell along with the DR-DOS in 1996, at the time noting that they may develop GEM into a platform for mobile computers and thin clients. However, these plans were dropped, and GEM was instead released into the open-source community.
The entire library of art assets from the game, has been made freely available, dedicated to the public domain. Code from the game client is included to help developers work with the assets. All of it can be downloaded and used by anyone, for any purpose.
Currently HGE goes Open Source. So it is now available under LGPL license. More details to follow.
30 August, 2006: HGE 1.6 released. Major new features are long awaited Bitmap Font Builder and string tables support. See Version history for detailed change log. HGE is now open source and is distributed under The zlib/libpng License.
In the wake of Lucasarts' closure today, Raven - the developers of the thoroughly excellent Jedi Outcast - have decided to release the source code for the game. Oh, and the code for its sequel, Jedi Academy, as well.
BOLD MOVE TO HARNESS CREATIVE POWER OF THOUSANDS OF INTERNET DEVELOPERS; COMPANY MAKES NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR AND COMMUNICATOR 4.0 IMMEDIATELY FREE FOR ALL USERS, SEEDING MARKET FOR ENTERPRISE AND NETCENTER BUSINESSES
[…] The organization that manages open source developers working on the next generation of Netscape's browser and communication software. This event marked a historical milestone for the Internet as Netscape became the first major commercial software company to open its source code, a trend that has since been followed by several other corporations. Since the code was first published on the Internet, thousands of individuals and organizations have downloaded it and made hundreds of contributions to the software. Mozilla.org is now celebrating this one-year anniversary with a party Thursday night in San Francisco.
When I saw the announcement that the Plan Nine software had been released as "open source", I wondered whether it might be free software as well. After studying the license, my conclusion was that it is not free [...]. I am not a supporter of the Open Source Movement, but I was glad when one of their leaders told me they don't consider the license acceptable either.
You probably thought the source release would never happen? Am I right? Well, it's there now in github at github.com/rebol/rebol.
Corona will be dual-licensed under both commercial and open source licenses. The open source license is the GNU GPLv3 license, and commercial license will be available upon agreement with Corona Labs.
Pretty much all code related to Corona Labs has been made available under the MIT license.
Sun's joint effort with CollabNet kicked into high gear on the OpenOffice Web site at 5 a.m. PST this morning with the release of much of the source code for the upcoming 6.0 version of StarOffice. According to Sun, this release of 9 million lines of code under GPL is the beginning of the largest open source software project ever.
Torque 2D MIT is an all new, open source, version of our 2D game development software. [...] Take Torque 2D, combine it with iTorque, add in Box 2D physics, several major enhancements and bug fixes, and make it open source. That is Torque 2D MIT.
By: Wikipedia.org
Edited: 2021-06-18 15:09:25
Source: Wikipedia.org