List of formerly proprietary software
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
In some cases, the company continues to publish proprietary, binary-only releases alongside the free and open source version.
| Title | Original release | Relicensed release | New license | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe Flex | 2004 | 2007 | Mozilla Public License | |
| Apache Derby | 1996 | August 2004 | Apache 2.0 licence | 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 |
| Hexxagon | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Previously shareware, now in Linux distributions |
| BDS C Compiler | 1979 | 2002 | Public domain | Released by author |
| Bitstream Vera (font) | Unknown | 2003 | custom | Through the efforts of Bitstream and the GNOME Foundation |
| Blender | 1996 | 2003 | GPL | |
| C*Base | 1980s | 2003 | GPL | |
| Duke Nukem 3D | 1996 | 2003 | GPL | Game code only, no data, no engine. |
| Doom | 1993 | 1999 | GPL | Code only. Originally released under a restrictive license in 1997 |
| Free Download Manager (FDM) | 2003 | August 2007 | GPL | Free since version 2.5[1] |
| GEM | February 1985 | April 1999 | GPL | Development continued as OpenGEM and FreeGEM. |
| Gentium (font) | 2002 | 2005 | OFL | Through the efforts of SIL International |
| ILWIS | 1988 | 2007 | GPL | Released as free and open-source software by ITC |
| Netscape Navigator/Communicator | 1994 | 1998 | MPL | See Mozilla |
| id Tech 2 | 1997 | 2001 | GPL | |
| id Tech 3 | 1999 | 2005 | GPL | |
| 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.[2] |
| Marathon 2: Durandal | 1995 | 2000 | GPL | Now known as Aleph One |
| Movable Type | October 2001 | December 2007 | GPL | Weblog software |
| NetBeans | 1997 | October 2007 | GPL, CDDL | An integrated development environment (IDE) for Java and other programming languages |
| Open Sound System | 1992 | 2007 | GPL, CDDL | |
| Qt | 1991 | 1999 | QPL | |
| Quake engine | 1996 | 1999 | GPL | |
| Quake II | 1997 | 2001 | GPL | |
| Quake III Arena | 1999 | 2005 | GPL | |
| Rise of the Triad | 1994 | 2002 | GPL | |
| Second Life client | 2003 | 2007 | GPL v2 | |
| SimCity | 1989 | 2007 | GPL v3 | Free version released as 'Micropolis' [1] |
| Solaris | 1989 | 2005 | CDDL | Free version released as OpenSolaris |
| StarOffice | 1986 | 2000 | LGPL/SISSL | Free version released as OpenOffice.org, now released only under the LGPL). StarOffice is still released separately under a proprietary license, using mostly the same code; Sun requires all contributors to the main OpenOffice.org project assign joint copyright to Sun. |
| Synfig | 2001 | 2005 | GPL | |
| Tesseract OCR | 1985 | 2005 | Apache License 2.0 | Released as free and open-source software by HP and UNLV |
| TurboCASH | April 1985 | July 2003 | GPL | |
| Warzone 2100 | March 1999 | December 2004 | GPL | Video game by Eidos Interactive |
| Watcom C compiler | 1988 | 2003 | Sybase Open Watcom Public License | Free version released as OpenWatcom |
