It's time we talked about Hirens

[Dos_Box]

Well, I've been following the situation with the fabled Hirens boot CD with interest for many years now. For those of you who didn't know about Hirens, it was (is) a bootable CD which contain a mass of very useful and very powerful tools to solve almost every concievable problem you could think of, however it had one major flaw. Almost every piece of software on it was, let's just say, propriatary. From Norton Ghost to Partition Magic it was packed to the gills with it, but now it appears to have cleaned up its act somewhat. Which is good for us admins and mods because we don't have to edit posts every time someone mentions it!

I now note that everything on the latest release (15.1) is either freeware or shareware, and the Wikipedia page here: Hiren's BootCD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia acknowleges it's prior state whilst now showing that it is 'clean', but does this still make it 'legal' i.e. are they allowed to bundle a whole raft of other peoples apps, regardless of the license they were released under onto a single source?

Anyway, you can see the Hirens page here with a complete listing of the CD's contents: Hiren's BootCD 15.1 - All in one Bootable CD » www.hiren.info

What do you all think?

[cpjitservices]

To be honest, if you are using it who going to know except for you ? It's not like you put the disc together yourself full of those tools - I use Hirens often and also Ultimate BootCD which is similar. If your using them privately in your office with the door closed who's going to say anything ? Compared to the amount of downtime a problem maybe causing if you can whip a disk out and have the problem solved in a matter of minutes or hours then personally I'm all for it, I actually know that some computer shops these days all use Hirens, thats how they solve most problems I think and they make money from it.

[Trapper]

I have the UBCD on my multiboot USB stick.

 

I think this has a deeper implication for the costs of some products which especially small scale infrastructures like schools would hardly use. I glad to see more open source replacements however.

[CyberNerd]

might as well use a linux bootcd

[Dos_Box]

To be honest, if you are using it who going to know except for you ? It's not like you put the disc together yourself full of those tools - I use Hirens often and also Ultimate BootCD which is similar. If your using them privately in your office with the door closed who's going to say anything ? Compared to the amount of downtime a problem maybe causing if you can whip a disk out and have the problem solved in a matter of minutes or hours then personally I'm all for it, I actually know that some computer shops these days all use Hirens, thats how they solve most problems I think and they make money from it.

 

I think you're missing the point somewhat. For example, if you were a business and got caught using it (well, the older versions) you would be in for one hell of a wrist slapping there was that much licensed software on it and I can gurantee that most would not have these themselves, so would you be condoning software piracy to make you job easier?

[SteveBentley]

I now note that everything on the latest release (15.1) is either freeware or shareware, and the Wikipedia page here: Hiren's BootCD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia acknowleges it's prior state whilst now showing that it is 'clean', but does this still make it 'legal' i.e. are they allowed to bundle a whole raft of other peoples apps, regardless of the license they were released under onto a single source?

 

Is it not the definition of shareware and freeware that you can distribute the software?

[Dos_Box]

It depends under what license IIRC. That's my point.

I.E. You can visit a persons/companies site and download and use a piece of software for free, but only as long as you have obtained it from that site.

[featured_spectre]

The licencing terms are very explicit in that they cannot be used in Commercial and Educational establishments and can only be used at home - if using free/shareware versions.

 

If you BUY a licence for each piece of software and make your OWN version of the HIREN disk, then you are legally covered (you would obviously need the licence paperwork) but the cost of licencing for a disk like that would probably be around the £500 mark as each piece of software is between £5-£25.

[ZeroHour]

The licencing terms are very explicit in that they cannot be used in Commercial and Educational establishments and can only be used at home - if using free/shareware versions.

 

??????

The majority of the disk is now listed as freeware at least: Hiren's BootCD 15.1 - All in one Bootable CD » www.hiren.info the shareware stuff cant be used for anything other then evaluation purposes normally but if you dont use it it being on the disk shouldnt be a problem.

[featured_spectre]

Freeware licencing is for home purposes only...its all in the fine print

[ZeroHour]

Freeware licencing is for home purposes only...its all in the fine print

 

Erm what?!?!? links???

For example ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.97.3 (07-12-2011)A free antivirus, GNU GPL Open Source Virus Scanner. is FREE! Free for all....

[CyberNerd]

Erm what?!?!? links???

For example ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.97.3 (07-12-2011)A free antivirus, GNU GPL Open Source Virus Scanner. is FREE! Free for all....

 

 

Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus is a comprehensive, easy to use antivirus program, designed to offer reliable free of charge virus protection to home-users, for personal use only, and is not for business or commercial use. Available for Windows or Unix.

 

http://www.avira.com/en/support-download-free-antivirus

 

I'm not sure whether it being 'on the disk' and not using it is ok? does the same go for any unlicensed software?

[ZeroHour]

Avira AntiVir Personal - Download

 

I'm not sure whether it being 'on the disk' and not using it is ok? does the same go for any unlicensed software?

 

I (IANAL) think it being there shouldnt be such an issue. Shareware versions would be okay as long as its not used for anything other then eval in theory.

[synaesthesia]

I have been using Hirens for ages, I preferred it over UBCD and yes I did use it full in the knowledge that the software included was a majority "not legal".

 

It has indeed cleaned up it's act a lot, so in the last few versions I've been happy to have it lying around as a valuable tool rather than a discrete disc in a secret place It's been worth it's weight in gold mostly for the official HDD diagnostic tools.

[CyberNerd]

I (IANAL) think it being there shouldnt be such an issue. Shareware versions would be okay as long as its not used for anything other then eval in theory.

 

I'll remember that incase I get an audit.

 

I never watched all those illegal downloads. honest.

[Norphy]

Erm what?!?!? links???

For example ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.97.3 (07-12-2011)A free antivirus, GNU GPL Open Source Virus Scanner. is FREE! Free for all....

 

Freeware is not necessarily the same as GPL or other open source licences.

[SteveBentley]

The term shareware has morphed somewhat - back in the day it used to be that developers would release something as shareware with a license that meant that you could use it indefintely but if you found it useful you were expected to pay for it.

 

Shareware has come to mean something more akin to trialware in more recent years, with features or the entire application being disabled after 30 days.

[localzuk]

A quick glance at the list of apps on it would make me think 'no, its not ok still'. A large number of the tools are free for personal use only. Whether or not you use them, having them on a bootable disk is enough to end up being prosecuted for copyright infringement.

 

The UBCD is a much safer choice, as it is designed around free/gpl software from the off (and free meaning for any use).