About Community Edition Alfresco

[why1525]

Hai…I got a question here.
If I am using Alfresco Community Edition for using in a company without distribute it with other software. Then is it I need to purchase a license for this?
Or the Alfresco is only free for developer and if want to use it as a software in a company need to pay a lot of money?
I also very confuse about all the licenses in Alfresco and worry i will violate any rules in there. I am still a student and doing a sponsor based project on DMS. I been advised to find open source software to help me in this project. Am I in the wrong place?

Thanks to all who view this and reply.

Good day….

[why1525]

Dear all,
Is there anyone really can help me here?
Sorry if I am posting wrong thing here. I really need to know about this thing here.

Thanks you.

[kevinr]

Did this not answer you question before?

http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=3635

Yes you can use the Community edition of Alfresco.

Kevin

[thejavafreak]

Kevin,

So basically you only need the license if you want a professional support from Alfresco? And I would not violate any license eventhough I'm using the community edition in a commercial organization?

[kevinr]

That's correct, you can use the Community edition within a commercial organisation without paying a penny.

The question is about risk - if someone goes wrong and you lose your company data or have a critical issue you need a patch fix for, then you don't get that support and you don't get that "insurance" that you effectively get when purchasing the Enterprise edition. So it's up to you to decide; is it worth the risk - how important is your company data, how important is fast turn-around on any issues you might face or patches and bug fixes and so on…

Thanks,

Kevin

[mashechka]

If we fix any bugs or modify features in alfresco do we have to recontribute? 
And what kinds of modifications would have to be re-contributed?

[tomislav]

full answer will be made clearer in the coming days, so I'll hold off on answering just yet.

Rumors were true, GPL is coming


cheers

[rdanner]

Contributions are most certainly encouraged and accepted. Our wiki has some tips on contributing code:
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Source_Code

As to the question of "What kinds of modifications would have to be contributed?", the full answer will be made clearer in the coming days, so I'll hold off on answering just yet.

that was subtle! 

I think the other thing to point out in this thread is that support not only buys you "insurance" but it also buys you an added layer of Alfresco based QA, packaging and certification. 

What should you contribute back to Alfresco?  Well there may end up being some mandatory requirements but another take on it is:

Commit back anything that is not CORE to your business.  If it's CONTEXT code that doesn't give you competitive advantage – share it!  It's a win win for everyone.  We benefit from your initial labor and you benefit from our use, code fixes and general appreciation for you and your good work 😎

Contribution is a good business decision – let the code flow my friend