1.2. Our Philosophy

vortexOS is primarily licensed under the MIT X11-style license, which covers all software, documentation, and fonts within the project. There are only a few exceptions to this, all of which are licensed under other compatible open-source licenses.

The MIT X11-style license offers the following benefits:

• Unrestricted Access: It grants you, the user, full and unrestricted access to the software, allowing you to inspect, modify, and redistribute your changes.

• Inspection: Anyone is permitted to inspect the software to identify any security vulnerabilities.

• Modification: Anyone can modify the software to address security vulnerabilities.

• Redistribution: Anyone can redistribute the software to patch any discovered security vulnerabilities.

• GPL Compatibility: It is compatible with GPL licenses, meaning that projects licensed under GPL can be distributed with vortexOS.

• Incorporation of GPL-Incompatible Free Software: The license permits the inclusion of GPL-incompatible free software, such as OpenZFS, which is licensed under CDDL.

Moreover, the license does not impose restrictions on the software that can run on vortexOS. Thanks to the microkernel architecture, even components that are traditionally tightly coupled, like drivers, can be distributed separately, allowing maintainers to choose any license they prefer for their projects.

vortexOS is committed to being free forever, as we aspire to be a foundational element in the creation of secure and resilient systems.