Penguin
Annotated edit history of Proprietary version 6, including all changes. View license author blame.
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4 AristotlePagaltzis 1 Usually a synonym for ClosedSource, it means the opposite of open or [Free].
1 AristotlePagaltzis 2
4 AristotlePagaltzis 3 Do not confuse [Proprietary] software with commercial software. A company can be making money from [Free] software, which is thus commercial. On the other hand, non-commercial software may still be [Proprietary]: this is called freeware (not to be confused with FreeSoftware).
1 AristotlePagaltzis 4
5 AristotlePagaltzis 5 [Proprietary] software is distributed in BinaryExecutable form under a restrictive license. Where SourceCode is available, if at all, it is..
2 AristotlePagaltzis 6 * almost always charged for
7 * often only available to specific customers
8 * almost always forbids any modification at all, even for in-house use of the customer only.
9 [Proprietary] software leaves you at the mercy of its vendor regarding support and the pricing thereof, availability and cost of upgrades and so on.
1 AristotlePagaltzis 10
4 AristotlePagaltzis 11 Of course, not only software can be [Free], hence the opposite also applies more generally. MicrosoftOffice file formats, for example, do not follow open standards and are undocumented; thus, they too are [Proprietary].
3 StuartYeates 12
6 AdrianKitto 13 [Hacker]s generally sneer at anything [Proprietary].