This is alist of proprietary source-available software, which has availablesource code, but is not classified asfree software oropen-source software. In some cases, this type of software is originally sold and released without thesource code, and the source code becomes available later. Sometimes, the source code is released under a liberalsoftware license at itsend of life. This type of software can also have its source codeleaked orreverse engineered.
While such software often later becomesopen source software orpublic domain, other constructs andsoftware licenses exist, for instanceshared source orcreative commons licenses.[1][2] If the source code is given out without specified license orpublic domainwaiver it has legally to be considered as still proprietary due to theBerne Convention.
For a list of video game software with available source code, seeList of commercial video games with available source code. For specifically formerlyproprietary software which is now free software, seeList of formerly proprietary software.
| Title | Original author | Original release | Source code availability | OpenSource compatible | Freeware (data and software) | CompleteFree software (DFSG compatible) | New license | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Lumberyard | Amazon | 2002 | 2016 | No | Yes | No | proprietary license | On 16 August 2017, thesource code of thegame engine was made freely available under proprietarylicense terms viaGitHub.[3][4] |
| Apple DOS | Apple Inc. | 1986 | 2015 | No | No | No | non-commercial license | The Apple DOSsource code was released by theComputer History Museum[5] after Paul Laughton, the creator of the code, donated it.[6] |
| Photoshop 1.0.1[7] | Adobe Systems Inc. | 1990 | February 2013[8] | No | ? | No | Computer History Museum Software License (non-commercial license)[7] | Adobe Systems Inc. made thesource code of the 1990 version 1.0.1 of Photoshop available to theComputer History Museum. Includes all the code with the exception of the MacApp applications library which was licensed from Apple. |
| Bitstream Vera (font) | Bitstream Inc. | Unknown | 2003 | ? | Yes (non-commercial) | No (can't be sold by itself) | custom non-commercial | Through the efforts of Bitstream and theGNOME Foundation |
| Build | Ken Silverman | 1995 | 2000 | No | Yes | No | own non-commercial license | |
| Commodore 64 firmware | Commodore International | 1982 | 2012 | No | No | No | Around 2012 Dennis Jarvis, ex-Commodore engineer, made material and source code of the development history of the C64 available.[9] Later the source code was cleaned up, reformated and made build-able again in a GitHub projects by enthusiasts.[10] | |
| Call to Power II | Activision | 2000 | 2003 | No | No | No | own non-commercial license[11] | Source code was handed to the community to allow them self-support.[12][13] |
| CuneiForm | Cognitive Technologies | 1993 | 2008 | ? | ? | ? | BSD | Optical character recognition software |
| Deluxe Paint I (1986) | Electronic Arts | 1996 | 2015 | No | Yes | No | non-commercial license | Source code of an early version released byElectronic Arts in 2015.[14] |
| Duke Nukem 3D | 3D Realms | 1996 | 2003 | Yes | No | No | GPL-2.0-or-later | Game code only, no data, no engine. |
| Doom | id Software | 1993 | 1997 | Yes | No | No | id software license[15]/laterGPLv2+ | Code only. Originally released under a restrictive license in 1997, in 1999 re-licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later. |
| DR-DOS/Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 | Caldera (company) | 1976 | May 1997 | ? | ? | ? | Caldera's OpenDOS End-User License Agreement[16] | TheCaldera OpenDOS 7.01 source code was a base for the DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project in 2002.[17] |
| Furby | David Hampton | 1998 | August 2018 | ? | ? | ? | Public Domain (?) | In August 2018, after contacting theUS patent office, aPDF scan of the toy'sassembler languagefirmware from the patent's appendix became available on the internet.[18][19] Later it was archived by theInternet Archive,[20] and then manually corrected and transcribed to assemble-able code again by anenthusiast.[21] |
| FPS Creator Classic | The Game Creators | 1999 (?) | February 2016 | No | Yes | No | undefined | In February 2016 authors decided to release "FPS Creator" as "FPS Creator Classic"source available (no definedlicense) with many model packs ongithub.com.[22][23] |
| Helix (multimedia project)[24][25] | RealNetworks | 2002 | ? | Yes | No | RealNetworks Community Source License | TheHelix Community is an open collaborative effort to develop and extend the Helix DNA platform.[26] | |
| HoverRace | GrokkSoft | 1996 | 2006 | ? | No | No | originally time limited license / later non-commercialGrokkSoft HoverRace SourceCode License.[27] | |
| Jump 'n Bump | Brainchild Design | 1998 | 1999 | ? | Yes | No | Emailware[28] | Source code released under anemailware license. |
| Java | Sun Microsystems | 1995 | 1998 | No | Yes | No | Sun Community Source License | In 1998Sun Microsystems released much of Java under the terms of theSun Community Source License.[29] |
| MacPaint | Apple Inc. | 1984 | 2010 | No | Yes | No | non-commercial license[30] | MacPaint 1.3'ssource code (written in a combination ofAssembly andPascal) is available through theComputer History Museum, along with theQuickDraw source code.[31] |
| Marathon 2: Durandal | Bungie | 1995 | 2000 | Yes | No | No | GPL-3.0-or-later | The code was released under the GPL-2.0-or-later, then GPL-3.0-or-later, while the data is still proprietary. Now known asAleph One |
| Mega (service) | Mega Limited | 201? | 2017 | No | No | No | MEGA Limited Code Review License | Mega Limited released the source code to their client-side software around 28 January 2017 under an own license on github.com.[32][33] |
| MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 | Microsoft | 1982 | 2018 | Yes | Yes | Yes | MIT | On 25 March 2014 Microsoft made the code to MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 available to the public under a Microsoft Research License for educational purposes.[34][35] In 2018 they relicensed them under MIT license.[36] |
| Microsoft Word for Windows version 1.1a | Microsoft | 1991 | 2014 | No | Yes | No | Microsoft Research License (non-commercial license) | Microsoft made thesource code of the 1991 version of Word available to theComputer History Museum and to the public for educational purposes.[37][38] |
| MidasWWW | Tony Johnson and Chung Huynh | 1992 | 2015 | ? | Yes | ? | unspecified | 16 November 1992sources were made available in June 2015 atGitHub without specifiedlicense.[39][40] |
| NASTRAN | NASA | 1960 | 2001 | ? | ? | ? | own license | In 2001 the NASA released with the "NASA Classics" package also theFinite Element Analysis simulator'ssource code to the public for free.[41][42][43] |
| NCSA Mosaic 2.7 | NCSA | 1993 | March 2010[44] | ? | Yes | ? | own license[45] | first graphical browser |
| NetBeans | 1997 | October 2007 | Yes | Yes | No | Apache-2.0 | Anintegrated development environment (IDE) forJava and otherprogramming languages | |
| Netscape Enterprise Server | Sun Microsystems | January 2009 | ? | ? | BSD | Sun Microsystems open sourced it.[46] | ||
| PhysX | Nvidia | 2004 | 2015 | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3-clause BSD license (Proprietary until 2018 except for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch)[47] | At GDC 2015, Nvidia made the PhysX'source code available onGitHub, but requires registration ondeveloper.nvidia.com and EULA signing.[48] Since December 2018, Nvidiarelicensed[47] the PhysX' source code under the 3-clause BSD license forApple iOS,macOS,Google Android ARM,Linux, andMicrosoft Windows |
| Pine (email client) | 1989 | 1996 | ? | ? | ? | own license[49] | Before 1996 under BSD license, it was switched to a proprietary license while still having the source code available.[50] | |
| Quake | id Software | 1996 | 1999 | Yes | No | No | GPL-2.0-or-later | The map sources were also released under the GPL in 2006.[citation needed] |
| Rise of the Triad | 3D Realms | 1994 | 2002 | Yes | No | No | GPL-2.0-or-later | Only the code was released under the GPL-2.0-or-later. |
| Stellar Frontier | Stardock | 1997 | 2008[51] | No | Yes | No | Stardock Shared Source Stellar Frontier License (non-commercial license)[52] | Stellar Frontier is a multiplayer space strategy/shooter game made by Doug Hendrix in 1995 and published byStardock. Stardock closed the master server on 4 August 2006, ceasing official support for multiplayer mode but released the source code under ashared source license in 2008. |
| Swiss Post E-Voting System | Scytl | unknown | 2021[53] | No | No | No | own license | The software was originally developed by Scytl, but purchased by Swiss Post in 2020.[54] Some parts of the system are released under an open source license, but the main part is not. |
| Symbian | Nokia | 1997 (asPsionEPOC32)[55] | 2010[56][57] | Yes | Yes | No | EPL / Nokia Symbian License[58] | |
| Take 2 | Cellsoft / Geert Vergauwe | ? | 2015 | ? | Yes | ? | "open source freeware" | The popular animation software for theAmiga was gifted in 2015 to the community by the original developer, including the68k assembly source code.[59][60] |
| Technicolor TC72xx chipsetcable modemfirmware/eCos | Technicolor | 2008 | 2015 | Yes | Yes | ? | GPLv2, lGPL,eCos 2.0 license[61] | Released onGitHub on 30. November 2015.[62][63] |
| v8 Unix, v9, v10 | Unix Heritage Society andAlcatel-Lucent | 1985 | 2017 | No | Yes | No | non-copyright enforcement grant on non-commercial usage | In 2017, Unix Heritage Society andAlcatel-Lucent USA Inc., on behalf of itself andNokiaBell Laboratories, released v8, v9, v10 under the condition:[64]"will not assert its copyright rights with respect to any non-commercial copying, distribution, performance, display or creation of derivative works of Research Unix®1 Editions 8, 9, and 10". |
| Unrar | Rarlabs | 1995 | 2000 | No | Yes | No | own unrar license[65] | Unrar source code was released byEugene Roshal/RARlabs sometime in 2000. A GPL fork of older codebase exists.[66] |
| Unreal Engine | Epic Games | 1998 | 2014 | No | Yes | No | own unrar license | |
| Warzone 2100 | Pumpkin Studios/Eidos Interactive | March 1999 | December 2004 | Yes | Yes (only movies not)[67] | Yes (GPL-2.0-or-later, only movies not)[67] | GPL-2.0-or-later | Video game byEidos Interactive |
| Watcom C compiler | Watcom | 1988 | 2003 | Yes | Yes | No | Sybase Open Watcom Public License | Released asOpen Watcom, under a license which is considered free by the OSI[68] but not by the FSF. The FSF has problems with the license as it demands more freedom than the GPL by requiring the release of source code also in the case of private use.[69] |
| Xerox Alto | Computer History Museum | 1975 | 2014 | No | Yes | No | own non-commercial license | On 21 October 2014, Xerox Alto'ssource code and other resources were released from theComputer History Museum.[70] |
[...]that no further patches to the title would be forthcoming. The community was predictably upset. Instead of giving up on the game, users decided that if Activision wasn't going to fix the bugs, they would. They wanted to save the game by getting Activision to open the source so it could be kept alive beyond the point where Activision lost interest. With some help from members of the development team that were active on fan forums, they were eventually able to convince Activision to release Call to Power II's source code in October of 2003.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)This is not a free software license. It requires you to publish the source code publicly whenever you "Deploy" the covered software, and "Deploy" is defined to include many kinds of private use.
With the permission of the Palo Alto Research Center, the Computer History Museum is pleased to make available, for non-commercial use only, snapshots of Alto source code, executables, documentation, font files, and other files from 1975 to 1987.