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I was thinking about securing some data on a laptop running Ubuntu with something like truecrypt, but I noticed that I could not apt-get it (even though it is "open source").

So I searched the web for some information on what is going on, and if there is any problems with truecrypt and found this wikipedia page that states that neither OSI or the major linux distros like it.

What is going on here?

Is truecrypt free or not free (as in freedom that is)?

And what is the problem with this "truecrypt license"?

Thanks Johan

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lists.freedesktop.org/archives/distributions/2008-October/… I think this sums it up nicely. I got it from the wiki article. It gets into some major legalese in there... – Nitrodist Aug 29 '10 at 8:18
But why did OSI approve it? – Johan Aug 29 '10 at 8:24
Wait I can't find it on the osi webpage (opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical) maybe wikipedia is wrong about the OSI approval? – Johan Aug 29 '10 at 8:27
quoting the wikipedia article: "The TrueCrypt License has not been officially approved by the Open Source Initiative and is not considered "free" by several major Linux distributions" – lajuette Aug 29 '10 at 8:30
Upps, missed the little "not"... – Johan Aug 29 '10 at 8:57
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I found this link in the article you posted. IMHO it contains all the information you need.

If i got it right the main problems are, that the TrueCrypt license is not protecting the developers enough (e.g. from being sued). The works they create are not protected from being included in (commercial) software without the developers/users knowing about it.

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