Is Discourse fully free?

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1

Hello,

I’m considering using Discourse, but before I do, I would like to know: is the forum software fully free, including the JavaScript and all of its dependencies?

Thanks,
Andrew

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2

Yes it is… but bear in mind you’ll have to rent a VPS ( I think the cheapest are from 5€ a month ).

But still, if you realise how much work and effort the community has done to make this great piece of software… you should consider yourself very happy :slightly_smiling_face:

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3

Hello Carlo,

Thanks for your reply. I was referring to “fully free” as in the free software definition. Basically, I want to avoid using any non-free software while using Discourse.

In any case, I am definitely very happy about all of the contributions people have made to Discourse, as it seems like a really great project! :grinning:

Thanks,
Andrew

4

Yes, Discourse is released under GPLv2, which fits your definition of “free”

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5

FREE AS A BIRD
image

Welcome!
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6

FREE BIRD!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the link Jeff.

I guess I should have pointed out that I know that Discourse is a free software project, but what sometimes happens (rarely?) is that there are little JavaScript dependencies that sneak in via npm that turn out to be non-free. So I guess I’m wondering whether anyone knows about the licenses of all of those little deps.

Thanks,
Andrew

7

You can not legally call your software GPLv2 if it bundles proprietary software or open source software using an incompatible license, yes we are careful with every single dependency, in fact we always try to lean on MIT/BSD and up.

Feel free to audit our dependencies

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