If Ubuntu is free as in "freedom"....

[Trilogin]

If I wanted to start a business with a friend of mine who codes, we could build PC's based on Ubuntu for doing Android app development without purchasing the OS, right?

[Aeighty]

I would ( this is just me ) buy the Ubuntu disc for the install just to make the deal more ligit as apposed to DL and burn to any given blank disc. I would also send the Ubuntu disc with the Computer so that your customer would have a copy of their OS in case they ran in to any issues they could do a clean install from a verified disc. Peace of mind for everyone.

Edit. think i may have read the post wrong you are not looking to sell anything are you ? just building a rig for a purpose.

[nd456]

Yes; however, there is only 1 app for android development "illumination Software Creator" and it costs 39.85USD and is farly basic. But there could be other apps orvirtual machines

[Trilogin]

Yes; however, there is only 1 app for android development "illumination Software Creator" and it costs 39.85USD and is farly basic. But there could be other apps orvirtual machines

Seriously? Android is built on the Linux Kernel but there is only one app for android devs available for Linux? LOL I find that hard to believe but I will do some research and find out for myself. I don't mean to be rude at all by saying that, it just seems a little ridiculous to me for that situation to have happened.

If there is only one app for android devs, does it at least work seamlessly with the plethora of other free development apps available to Linux users?

[mcduck]

Seriously? Android is built on the Linux Kernel but there is only one app for android devs available for Linux? LOL I find that hard to believe but I will do some research and find out for myself. I don't mean to be rude at all by saying that, it just seems a little ridiculous to me for that situation to have happened.

If there is only one app for android devs, does it at least work seamlessly with the plethora of other free development apps available to Linux users?

Well, the official Android SDK is free, of course. And runs just fine on Linux.

Illumination Software Creator seems to be some third-party application that provides a visual programming interface for Android development, as opposed to the SDK which just a normal code-based development kit.

[Trilogin]

I see, so this eclipse thing available at www.eclipse.org is not the same as the illumination software creator?

[mcduck]

I see, so this eclipse thing available at www.eclipse.org is not the same as the illumination software creator?

No, it definitely isn't. :) All the tools needed for Android development are free. You can get commercial 3rd-party tools like the mentioned Illumination Software Creator, but if you are happy with normal methods of programming (writing code instead of dragging graphical blocks together to create a program) then there's no need to pay anything.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

[Trilogin]

I will have to talk to my potential business partner, he wants to write the code and wants me to handle the business side of things. Hence why I need to know the legalities lol.

[enimeizoo]

I would ( this is just me ) buy the Ubuntu disc for the install just to make the deal more ligit as apposed to DL and burn to any given blank disc. I would also send the Ubuntu disc with the Computer so that your customer would have a copy of their OS in case they ran in to any issues they could do a clean install from a verified disc. Peace of mind for everyone.

Edit. think i may have read the post wrong you are not looking to sell anything are you ? just building a rig for a purpose.

Well, I'm not sure that buying the cd makes it 'more legit'. Ubuntu is free. If I wanted to show gratitude or something, I would rather make a donation.
But that's just me.

[Copper Bezel]

Yeah, this falls under "free as in beer" more than "free as in freedom." As long as you aren't distributing an edited version of the OS under the official branding, you're fine. You can install it on whatever machines you want, sell them, etc., as long as the OS isn't modified (or, if it is modified, has Canonical's branding removed.)

And if I'm understanding you, you're not even distributing the machines, just using them for development? In that case, there are certainly not gotchas. Ubuntu isn't limited to non-commercial use; there's no "premium license" or anything silly like that.

[jhonan]

I see, so this eclipse thing available at www.eclipse.org (http://www.eclipse.org) is not the same as the illumination software creator?
Get the ADT Plugin for Eclipse (http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html) if you're using Eclipse for dev.

But tbh, just because you're developing for Android doesn't mean you have to do the dev on a Linux platform - You can dev on whatever OS you want.

In fact, I'd recommend using whatever OS your developer feels most comfortable with - It's a steep enough learning curve to understand the SDK, without having to learn a whole new OS on top of it.

[grahammechanical]

Your developer friend should be looking here

http://developer.android.com/index.html

Perhaps he is, already. You should be looking here:

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

Or some other place that tells you what licence the Android code is released under.

Regards.

[forrestcupp]

You don't have to pay anything to legitimately install Ubuntu on as many computers as you want to sell. The only reason big OEMs may wish to pay is to get official support from Canonical for their customers. If you're customers are satisfied either having you take care of all their problems, or going to the Ubuntu Forums, then there is no reason to pay anything, unless you want to donate to the project out of gratitude.


Yes; however, there is only 1 app for android development "illumination Software Creator" and it costs 39.85USD and is farly basic. But there could be other apps orvirtual machinesWell, I was going to go off on this post, but I see that's already been taken care of. :)

Illumination Software Creator is not Android development software. It's software for people who don't want to develop Android apps, but they want one made. ;)

It's already been said a lot that the official way is by using the free Android SDK with the free ADT plugin in the free IDE called Eclipse that works perfectly in the free Ubuntu. :)

[Trilogin]

I do not want to sell computers, I'm just thinking about becoming part of a software development business whose focus is android apps. I am asking these questions with the future in mind, as in, if this potential company were to grow at the rate that software companies can grow I am not trying to pump a bunch of money into IT for operating systems, especially when development can happen on Linux and then we just pay for tech support (a better option IMHO).

Thanks for the link and the explanations :)