Xming appears to be a useful program for accessing and running your GNU/Linux applications remotely from a Windows computer. It is licensed under the GPLv2. But just how free is it, really?

Recently, Blue GNU reported that the Xming software is released under the terms of the GNU GPLv2, and that the developer might be violating its terms. Harrison now states his program is no longer under the GPL. So here's an update.

One of my favourite tools (that I use almost everyday) is PuTTY. I use it both on Windows (very useful because Windows has no SSH client) and on Linux. It is a program that enables SSH connections using a graphical interface. It also allows for the establishment of SSH tunnels as well as omitting some of the restrictions to Internet access.

Recently I wrote about how you can open (and use) Linux applications in Windows using a combination of PuTTY and XWin32. This system was fairly easy but a bit cumbersome. With a recent update to XWin32 Live, PuTTY has been removed from the equation and the setup/use is now easier than ever.

I did a Debian Etch install on one of my test machine drives recently, and today I added the openssh-server package so I could play around with PuTTY and Xming.

The Free Software Foundation has confirmed that Xming developer, Colin Harrison, has overreached his limits by attempting to impose additional restrictions beyond the requirements of the GNU GPL and LGPL.

"A lot of enterprises have moved to Linux because they're moving off Unix and they find Linux lets them maintain their skills but move to lower-cost hardware -- x86 boxes instead of Sun or HP Unix boxes," said open source expert Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica. "HP's philosophy is, 'if you're going to move off Unix boxes, why don't you stay in the family and move to an HP Linux box?'"

PuTTY is great for many things, though if you are really doing alot of Admin work from a SSH client; you may want to try the Poderosa (Open Source) tabbed and split screen viewing.