In some cases, the company continues to publish proprietary releases alongside the non-proprietary version.
List of formerly proprietary and closed-source software
Title |
Original release |
Relicensed release |
New license |
Notes |
.NET Framework (most components) |
2002 |
2014 |
MIT License, Apache license 2.0, BSD license |
Starting in 2014 Microsoft released most of their .NET ecosystem software (.NET Micro Framework, .NET Compiler Platform, ASP.NET, Entity Framework, NuGet etc) under FOSS licenses and shifted the code to a GitHub repository.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] |
Adobe Flex |
2004 |
2007 |
MPL |
Since renamed to Apache Flex and changed to Apache License 2.0 |
AdvFS |
1990s |
2008 |
GPL v2 |
HP opened up AdvFS from Tru64 UNIX. |
AOLserver |
|
1999 |
GPL / modified MPL |
[13] |
Apache Derby |
1996 |
2004 |
Apache License 2.0 |
Relational database management system originally called Cloudscape; released as free and open-source software by IBM in 2004 and donated to the Apache Software Foundation |
Apache Wave |
2009 |
2009 |
Apache License |
Formerly Google Wave.[14] |
Astrolog |
1991 |
2015 |
GPL v2+ / custom permissive |
Has always been freeware and open source, but had a custom attribution demanding permissive license. |
Atom |
2014 |
2014 |
MIT License |
[15] |
BDS C Compiler |
1979 |
2002 |
Public domain |
Released by author |
Bitstream Vera (font) |
|
2003 |
custom |
Through the efforts of Bitstream and the GNOME Foundation |
Blender |
1996 |
2003 |
GPL v2+ |
|
ChakraCore |
2009 |
2016 |
MIT |
On January 13, 2016 Microsoft released ChakraCore under the MIT license on GitHub.[16] ChakraCore is essentially the same as the Chakra engine that powers the Microsoft Edge browser, but with platform-agnostic bindings, i.e. without the specific interfaces utilised within the Windows Universal App platform.[17] |
Catacomb |
1989 |
2014 |
GPL v2 |
[18] |
Catacomb II |
1991 |
2014 |
GPL v2 |
[18] |
Catacomb Abyss |
1992 |
2014 |
GPL v2 |
[18] |
Catacomb Armageddon |
1992 |
2014 |
GPL v2 |
[18] |
Catacomb 3D |
1991 |
2014 |
GPL v2 |
[18] |
C*Base |
1980s |
2003 |
GPL v2+ |
|
CDE |
1993 |
2012 |
LGPL v2+ |
[19][20] |
CMU Sphinx |
|
2000 |
BSD |
[21][22] |
Coherent |
1980 |
2015 |
3-clause BSD License |
[23] |
CuneiForm |
1993 |
2008 |
BSD |
Optical character recognition software |
Dink Smallwood |
1998 |
2003 |
zlib-like |
Some game data (e.g. sounds) not released under a free license.[24] |
Doom engine |
1993 |
1999 |
GPL |
Code only. Originally released under a restrictive license in 1997 |
DOS.MASTER |
end 1980s |
2000 |
public domain software |
DOS.MASTER is a program for Apple II computers which allows Apple DOS 3.3 programs to be placed on a hard drive or 3½" floppy disk and run from ProDOS. Written by Glen Bredon as a commercial program during the late 1980s, it was released into the public domain by his family after the author's death.[25] |
Duke Nukem 3D |
1996 |
2003 |
GPL |
Game code only, no data, no engine. |
Etherpad |
2008 |
2009 |
Apache License 2.0 |
Open sourced after being purchased by Google |
Falcon |
|
2007 |
GPL |
[26] |
FAR Manager |
1996 |
2007 |
BSD |
Version 2.0 released as open source. |
Fish Fillets |
1998 |
2002 |
GPL |
|
Free Download Manager (FDM) |
2003 |
2007 |
GPL |
Free since version 2.5[27] |
GEM |
1985 |
1999 |
GPL |
Development continued as OpenGEM and FreeGEM. |
Gentium (font) |
2002 |
2005 |
OFL |
Through the efforts of SIL International |
Glitch |
2011 |
2013 |
Public domain software (CC0) |
After Glitch was officially shut down on December 9, 2012,[28] the artwork and most of the source code was released under the public domain-like Creative Commons license CC0 on November 18, 2013.[29][30] On December 9, 2014, a fan project to relaunch Glitch under the name Eleven began alpha testing.[31] |
GLX |
1990s |
2008 |
SGI FreeB License |
[32] |
HoverRace |
1996 |
2006 |
BSD |
|
Hovertank 3D |
1991 |
2014 |
GPL v2 |
[18] |
ILWIS |
1988 |
2007 |
GPL |
Released as free and open-source software by ITC |
id Tech 2 |
1997 |
2001 |
GPL |
|
id Tech 3 |
1999 |
2005 |
GPL |
|
id Tech 4 |
2004 |
2011 |
GPL |
The released version is the source code to Doom 3; source code to newer id Tech 4 games has yet to be released. Changes to the code had to be made to avoid use of the patented Carmack's Reverse. |
JaikuEngine |
2006 |
2009 |
Apache License 2.0 |
[33] |
Java |
1995 |
2006–2007 |
GPL |
On 13 November 2006, Sun Microsystems released much of Java as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On 8 May 2007 Sun finished the process, making all of Java's core code free and open source, aside from a small portion of code to which Sun did not hold the copyright.[34] |
Jumper 2.0 |
2007 |
2008 |
GPL |
Publicly announced on 29 September 2008,[35] |
Korn shell |
1982 |
2000 |
custom; now CPL |
|
LightZone |
2005 |
2012 |
3-clause BSD |
Company went out of business |
Marathon 2: Durandal |
1995 |
2000 |
GPL |
Only the code was released under the GPL. Now known as Aleph One |
MegaZeux |
|
|
GPL |
Both the code and the world files and music files are made freely available. |
MiniPanzer and MegaPanzer |
|
|
GPL |
The source code of the programs was released as GPL in 2009 by their author, who retained the copyright.[36] |
MINIX |
1987 |
2000 |
BSD |
|
Motif |
1980s |
2012 |
LGPL v2+ |
[37] |
Movable Type |
2001 |
2007 |
GPL |
Weblog software |
NetBeans |
1997 |
2007 |
GPL, CDDL |
An integrated development environment (IDE) for Java and other programming languages |
Netscape Enterprise Server |
|
2009 |
BSD |
Sun Microsystems open sourced it.[38] |
Netscape Navigator/Communicator |
1994 |
1998 |
MPL |
See Mozilla[39][40] |
OpenGL sample implementation |
1992 |
2008 |
SGI FreeB License |
[32] |
Open Sound System |
1992 |
2007 |
GPL, CDDL |
|
OpenWRT |
? |
2003 |
GPL |
As Linksys built the firmware for their WRT54G wireless router also from GPL'ed code,[41] they were required to make the source code available in July 2003.[42][43] |
Performance Co-Pilot |
1993 |
1999 |
GPL, LGPL |
|
Qt |
1991 |
1999 |
QPL |
First released as open source under the QPL. Later released as GPL. Qt 4.5 and later are released under the LGPL. Until 2005 the Windows version was only under proprietary license. |
Quake engine |
1996 |
1999 |
GPL |
The map sources were also released under the GPL in 2006. |
Rebol |
1997 |
2012 |
Apache license 2.0 |
Following the discussion with Lawrence Rosen,[44] the Rebol version 3 interpreter was released under the Apache 2.0 license on 12/12/2012.[45] |
Rise of the Triad |
1994 |
2002 |
GPL |
Only the code was released under the GPL. |
Ryzom |
2004 |
2010 |
AGPL |
[46][47] |
Second Life client |
2003 |
2007 |
GPL v2 |
|
SimCity |
1989 |
2007 |
GPL v3 |
Free version released as 'Micropolis' [48] |
Solaris |
1989 |
2005 |
CDDL |
Free version released as OpenSolaris |
Source Code Control System |
1972 |
2006 |
CDDL |
|
StarOffice |
1986 |
2000 |
LGPL/SISSL[49] |
Free version released as OpenOffice.org, later released only under the LGPL. (OpenOffice.org was discontinued in 2011, but forks—most prominently LibreOffice (licensed under the LGPL) and Apache OpenOffice (licensed under the Apache License)—have become its dominant successors.) StarOffice was still released separately under a proprietary license, using mostly the same code, until its discontinuing in 2011; Sun required all contributors to the main OpenOffice.org project assign joint copyright to Sun. |
Symbian platform |
|
2010 |
EPL |
|
Synfig |
2001 |
2005 |
GPL |
Some more information is available on the Synfig history page. |
Tesseract OCR |
1985 |
2005 |
Apache License 2.0 |
Released as free and open-source software by HP and UNLV |
TextSecure |
2010 |
2011 |
GPLv3 |
Since renamed to Signal |
Torque 3D |
2001 |
2012 |
MIT License |
Developed for Tribes 2. Released as free and open-source software by Dynamix |
TurboCASH |
1985 |
2003 |
GPL |
|
Warzone 2100 |
1999 |
2004 |
GPL |
Video game by Eidos Interactive |
Watcom C compiler |
1988 |
2003 |
Sybase Open Watcom Public License |
Free version released as Open Watcom under a license which is considered non-free by the GNU project[50] but acceptable by the OSI. |
XMind |
2007 |
2008 |
EPL and LGPL |
Mindmapping software based on the Eclipse RCP |
ZFS |
200? |
2005 |
CDDL |
The innovative next-generation file system was released by Sun Microsystems under an open-source license in 2005.[51] Due to the license incompatibility of the GPL with the CDDL it can't be directly integrated in linux, but in the BSDs or MacOS due to their permissive licensed kernel. After the later owner Oracle didn't released after version 28, the community forked to OpenZFS.[52] |