Karanbir Singh wrote:
Hi,
Gerhart, Bjoern wrote:
I work at Wincor Nixdorf, and we want to provide a distribution derived from CentOS as commercial product. Within the distribution we provide software for installing, configuring and operating our "Beetle" POS systems with regard to our customers' needs. The name of the distribution is "WNLPOS", which means "Wincor Nixdorf Linux for Point of Service".
Sounds good, are you patching the installer or providing scripts for doing this work after the distro is already installed on the machine ?
To carry this just a little further ... if the "Beetle" POS would run on CentOS-5 (the installer is much better able to handle added repositories), then why build a distro at all.
You could distribute CentOS as is (or a Core version that we can define for such things) and you could distribute your application as an installable piece (in a separate directory/repository) on the DVD.
Then, you don't have to deal at all with OS updates and can make use of the CentOS public infrastructure for the OS updates. All you need to manage and provide are the specific repositories for the application.
In this scenario, your users are installing CentOS as the OS and Beetle POS as an application. You can then use the CentOS logos as is.
If you keep CentOS as the OS, and make the application work with it as an added repository it does this for you:
1. Keeps your support and work focused on the application.
2. Allows you to distribute fully functional ISOs for install if you want to.
3. Allows your product to also be installable on upstream EL products (as a stand alone repository) ... that way you can also have a repo file that can be used to add the product in those instances too.
The question now is if we may mention CentOS in the derived distribution at all. This concerns for example the name of the grub menu entries, and the splash screens and wallpapers of Gnome and KDE. Are we allowed to write "WNLPOS - based on CentOS"? May we use the original logos (artwork), or is it allowed to modifiy them?
In the scenario that I described above, you are using the CentOS logos as it is the OS
Over the course of the next few days, we will put together a definite policy on such matters and publish them on the wiki.
btw, I hope Wincor Nixdorf is planning a huge donation to the project!