List of proprietary source-available software
This is a list of proprietary source-available software, which has available source code, but is not classified as free software or open-source software. In some cases, this type of software is originally sold and released without the source code, and the source code becomes available later. Sometimes, the source code is released under a liberal software license at its end of life as abandonware. This type of software can also have its source code leaked or reverse engineered.
While such software often becomes later open source software or public domain, also other constructs and software licenses exist, for instance shared source or creative commons licenses. If the source code is given out without specified license or public domain waiver it has legally to be considered as still proprietary due to the Berne Convention.
For a list of video game software with available source code, see List of commercial video games with available source code. For specifically formerly proprietary software which is now free software, see List of formerly proprietary software.
| Title | Original author | Original release | Source code availability | OpenSource compatible | Freeware | Complete Free software | New license | Notes |
| .NET Framework | Microsoft | 2002 | 2007/2014 | 2007: Microsoft Reference Source License, 2014: MIT license, Apache License 2.0, BSD license | In 2007 the source code of the Framework Class Library of.NET was released under a Microsoft Reference Source License by Microsoft. In November 2014, core parts of.NET were released under the permissive MIT license. Miguel de Icaza announced that the released code will be merged into Mono. | |||
| 3scale Connect | 3scale | 2007 | 2016 | ? | ? | ? | ? | On 22 June 2016, Red Hat announced the purchase of 3scale and the open sourcing of their software. |
| Adobe Flex | Adobe | 2004 | 2007 | MPL | Since renamed to Apache Flex and changed to Apache License 2.0 | |||
| Adventure Game Studio | Chris Jones | 1997 | 2011 | Artistic License v2 | On 26 October 2010, Chris Jones released the source code for the editor under the terms of the Artistic License version 2. On 27 April 2011, the runtime engine code was released under the same licence. In 2015, community developers keep maintaining and improving the engine. | |||
| AdvFS | Hewlett-Packard | 1990s | June 2008 | GPL v2 | On 23 June 2008 HP opened up AdvFS under GNU General Public License version 2 at SourceForge in order to be compatible with the Linux kernel license. | |||
| Amazon Lumberyard | Amazon | 20?? | 2016 | proprietary license | On 16 August 2017, the source code of the game engine was made freely available under proprietary license terms via GitHub. | |||
| Andrew File System now OpenAFS | Carnegie Mellon University / Transarc Corporation / IBM | 1989 | 2000 | IBM Public License | AFS was originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University, and developed as a commercial product by the Transarc Corporation, which was subsequently acquired by IBM. IBM announced on 15 August 2000 at LinuxWorld the release of AFS under the IBM Public License, which became OpenAFS. | |||
| Allegiance | Microsoft Research | 2000 | 2004 | MIT license | Real-time strategy and Space combat simulator videogame released by Microsoft Research under a shared source license 2004. On 27 July 2017 Microsoft Research changed the license from MSR shared source license to the MIT license. | |||
| Apache Derby | IBM | 1996 | August 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 | |||
| Apple DOS | Apple Inc. | 1986 | 2015 | non-commercial license | The Apple DOS source code was released by the Computer History Museum after Paul Laughton, the creator of the code, donated it. | |||
| ASP.NET | Microsoft | 2002 | 14 May 2013 | Apache License 2.0 | Released by Microsoft in 2013 | |||
| Photoshop 1.0.1 | Adobe Systems Inc. | 1990 | February 2013 | ? | COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM SOFTWARE LICENSE | Adobe Systems Inc. made the source code of the 1990 version 1.0.1 of Photoshop available to the Computer History Museum. Includes all the code with the exception of the MacApp applications library which was licensed from Apple. | ||
| Autodesk Animator Pro | Jim Kent | 1989 | 2009 | BSD license | Eventually Animator's development ended and it became no longer supported by Autodesk. Jim Kent kept copyrights to the 300,000 lines source code base of Animator Pro and made the software available to the public around 2009. After some initial code review porting to modern platforms was started on GitHub. | |||
| BDS C Compiler | Leor Zolman | 1979 | 2002 | Public domain | Released by author | |||
| Bitkeeper | BitMover Inc. | 1998 | 2016 | Apache 2 | On 9 May 2016 Bitkeeper became available under Apache 2 license for download on a GitHub repository. | |||
| Bitstream Vera | Bitstream Inc. | Unknown | 2003 | ? | Through the efforts of Bitstream and the GNOME Foundation | |||
| Blender | Neo Geo / Not a Number Technologies / Ton Roosendaal | 1996 | 2003 | GPL v2 | Originally proprietary shareware software, it was open sourced in 2002 after a €100,000 crowdfunding campaign. | |||
| BlitzBASIC | Mark Sibly | 2001 | 2014 | zlib license | BlitzPlus was released as Open Source on 28 April 2014 under the zlib license on github.com. Blitz3D follow on 3 August 2014. BlitzMax was open sourced on 21 September 2015. | |||
| Call to Power II | Activision | 2000 | 2003 | own non-commercial license | Source code was handed to the community to allow them self-support. | |||
| CAS.CADE | Matra Datavision | 1990s | 1999 | "Open Cascade Technology Public License" / since 6.7.0 LGPL 2.1 | ||||
| C*Base | 1980s | 2003 | GPLv2 | |||||
| CCGMS | Craig Smith and Aaron Hightower | 1986 | 2016 | BSD | The 6502 assembly source for the C64 BBS and terminal software was released by the developers in 2016. | |||
| ChakraCore | Microsoft | 2009 | 2016 | MIT | On 13 January 2016 Microsoft released ChakraCore under the MIT license on GitHub. 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. | |||
| Common Desktop Environment | The Open Group | 1993 | 2012 | LGPL v2+ | ||||
| Conversations / OpenMAPI | VIPcom GmbH | ? | 2009 | AGPL | VIPcom GmbH released in January 2009 the groupware software Conversations, an alternative to Microsoft Exchange, under the AGPL. | |||
| CMU Sphinx | Carnegie Mellon University/Kai-Fu Lee | 2000 | BSD 3-clause | |||||
| CuneiForm | Cognitive Technologies | 1993 | 2008 | ? | ? | ? | BSD | Optical character recognition software |
| CP/M | Caldera | 1974 | 2001 | "License Agreement CP/M" | In 2001 Caldera released CP/M's source code under an open source license, allowing redistribution and modification, via Tim Olmstead's "The Unofficial CP/M Web site". In October 2014, to mark the 40th anniversary of the first presentation of CP/M, the Computer History Museum released early source code versions of CP/M. | |||
| DarkBASIC | Lee Bamber / The Game Creators | 2000 | 2016 | MIT | In 2016 the source code of DarkBASIC Professional was liberated for the community under the open source MIT license on github.com. | |||
| Deluxe Paint I | Electronic Arts | 1996 | 2015 | non-commercial license | Source code of an early version released by Electronic Arts in 2015. | |||
| DIV Games Studio | Hammer Technologies | 1998 | 2016 | GPLv3 | The original for MS-DOS written software was released commercially in 1998. In November 2016 "DIV Games Studio 2"'s source code was released under the GPLv3 on GitHub. The software includes now support for many desktop and mobile platforms like Windows, OSX, Android, Linux, HTML / Javascript, Raspberry Pi, GCW Zero, Pandora Console, GP2X, PSP and more in WIP. | |||
| Duke Nukem 3D | 3D Realms | 1996 | 2003 | GPLv2+ | Game code only, no data, no engine. | |||
| Darwin | Apple Inc. | 1999 | 1999 | ? | Apple Public Source License | |||
| Doom | id Software | 1993 | 1997 | id software license/later GPLv2+ | Code only. Originally released under a restrictive license in 1997, in 1999 re-licensed under GPLv2. | |||
| DR-DOS/Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 | Caldera | 1976 | May 1997 | ? | ? | ? | CALDERA'S OPENDOS END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT | The Caldera OpenDOS 7.01 source code was a base for the DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project in 2002. |
| DOS/32 DOS extender | Narech Koumar | 1996 | 2002 | Apache-like license | In May 2002 DOS/32 Advanced DOS extender was released to the public by Narech Koumar including the latest binaries, documentation manuals and the source code under an Apache-like license allowing unrestricted, royalty-free distribution and use of the released materials in any software projects including commercial products. | |||
| DOS.MASTER | Glen Bredon | 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. It was written by Glen Bredon as a commercial program during the late 1980s where it experienced widespread success; it was released into the public domain by his family after the author's death. | |||
| Etherpad | 2008 | 2009 | Apache License 2.0 | Open sourced after being purchased by Google | ||||
| Eudora | Qualcomm | 1988 | 2018 | BSD license | Released by the Computer History Museum. | |||
| Free Download Manager | 2003 | August 2007 | GPLv3 | Free since version 2.5 | ||||
| Gigablast | Matt Wells | 2000 | 2013 | Apache License | The web search engine was started in 2000 by Matt Wells and the source code was released in 2013 under Apache license. | |||
| Graphics Environment Manager | Caldera Thin Clients | February 1985 | April 1999 | GPLv2+ | Caldera Thin Clients released the source to GEM under the GNU General Public License in April 1999. The development of GEM for PC is continued as OpenGEM and FreeGEM. It also has been ported to the Atari ST again to be used in the free TOS clone EmuTOS. | |||
| FAR Manager | Eugene Roshal/Far Group | October 1996 | October 2007 | BSD revises | Version 2.0 released as open source. | |||
| File Manager | Microsoft | 1990 | April 2018 | MIT | On 6 April 2018, Microsoft released binaries and the source code, licensed under the MIT License, for an improved version of File Manager able to be run on Windows 10. This version included changes such as the ability to compile in modern versions of Visual Studio, the ability to compile as a 64-bit application, and numerous usability improvements. | |||
| FPS Creator Classic | The Game Creators | 1999 | February 2016 | undefined | In February 2016 authors decided to release "FPS Creator" as "FPS Creator Classic" source available with many model packs on github.com. | |||
| Gentium | SIL International | 2002 | 2005 | OFL | Through the efforts of SIL International | |||
| Haaf's Game Engine | Relish Games / Ryan C. Gordon | 200? | 2011 | zlib license | Video game Hammerfight was part of the third Humble Indie Bundle in 2011, and Ryan C. Gordon ported "Haaf's Game Engine" to Linux and Mac OS X. Relish Games and Ryan Gordon released the source code of their versions under the zlib free software license in August/September 2011. | |||
| Helix | RealNetworks | 2002 | ? | RealNetworks Community Source License | The Helix Community is an open collaborative effort to develop and extend the Helix DNA platform. | |||
| HoverRace | GrokkSoft | 1996 | 2006 | ? | originally time limited license / later non-commercial GrokkSoft HoverRace SourceCode License. | |||
| ICQ | Mail.Ru Group | 1996 | 2016 | Apache license | In March 2016 the source code of the ICQ client was released under the Apache license released on github.com. | |||
| Impulse Tracker | Jeffrey "Pulse" Lim | 1995 | 2014 | BSD License | A Music tracker originally released by Jeffrey "Pulse" Lim in 1995 for MS-DOS. The software was distributed as freeware beside an advanced commercial version with extra features. After the commercial version was publicly pirated, the development ended with release 8 April 1999. On 25 December 2014, the complete Impulse Tracker source code was added to a GitHub repository under the BSD license by the author. | |||
| ILWIS | ITC | 1988 | 2007 | GPL | Released as free and open-source software by ITC | |||
| Jump 'n Bump | Brainchild Design | 1998 | 1999 | ? | Emailware | Source code released under an emailware license. | ||
| id Tech 2 | id Software | 1997 | 2001 | GPL | ||||
| id Tech 3 | id Software | 1999 | 2005 | GPL | ||||
| id Tech 4 | id Software | 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. | |||
| Java | Sun Microsystems | 1995 | 1998 | Sun Community Source License | In 1998 Sun Microsystems released much of Java under the terms of the Sun Community Source License. | |||
| Jumper 2.0 | 2007 | 2008 | GPL | Publicly announced on 29 September 2008. | ||||
| Korn shell | 1982 | 2000 | custom license; later CPL | |||||
| LightZone | Light Crafts | 2005 | 2012 | 3-clause BSD | Company went out of business | |||
| Linksys WRT54G series wireless router firmware | Linksys | ? | 2003 | GPL | As Linksys built the firmware for their WRT54G wireless router also from GPL'ed code, they were required to make the source code available in July 2003. | |||
| MacPaint | Apple Inc. | 1984 | 2010 | non-commercial license | MacPaint 1.3's source code is available through the Computer History Museum, along with the QuickDraw source code. | |||
| Marathon 2: Durandal | Relic Entertainment | 1995 | 2000 | GPL | The code was released under the GPL while the data is still proprietary. Now known as Aleph One | |||
| Mega | Mega Limited | 201? | 2017 | 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. | |||
| MS-DOS 1.10 and 2.0 | Microsoft | 1982 | 2014 | MICROSOFT RESEARCH LICENSE | On 25 March 2014 Microsoft made the code to MS-DOS 1.10 and 2.0 available to the public under a Microsoft Research License for educational purposes. | |||
| Microsoft Word for Windows version 1.1a | Microsoft | 1991 | 2014 | MICROSOFT RESEARCH LICENSE | Microsoft made the source code of the 1991 version of Word available to the Computer History Museum and to the public for educational purposes. | |||
| MidasWWW | Tony Johnson and Chung Huynh | 1992 | 2015 | ? | ? | unspecified | 16 November 1992 sources were made available in June 2015 at GitHub without specified license. | |
| Miles Sound System | John Miles | 1991 | 2000 | Public domain | Source code release of the AIL version 2 for DOS by John Miles into the public domain in 2000. | |||
| MINIX | Andrew Tanenbaum | 1987 | 2000 | BSD 3-clause | ||||
| Movable Type | Weblog software | October 2001 | December 2007 | GPL | By Weblog software | |||
| MySQL | MySQL AB | 1995 | 2000 | dual-licensing: GPL / proprietary license | ||||
| NASTRAN | NASA | 1960 | 2001 | ? | ? | ? | own license | In 2001 the NASA released with the "NASA Classics" package also the Finite Element Analysis simulator's source code to the public for free. |
| Nebula device 2 / 3 | Radon Labs | 2001 | 2006 / 2011 | MIT license | Game engine of many Radon Labs games like Project Nomads, and. | |||
| NCSA Mosaic 2.7 | NCSA | 1993 | March 2010 | ? | ? | own license | first graphical browser | |
| NetBeans | 1997 | October 2007 | GPL, CDDL | An integrated development environment for Java and other programming languages | ||||
| Netscape Enterprise Server | Sun Microsystems | January 2009 | ? | ? | BSD | Sun Microsystems open sourced it. | ||
| Netscape Navigator/Communicator | Netscape Communications | 1994 | 1998 | MPL | See Mozilla | |||
| Open Sound System | 4Front Technologies | 1992 | 2007 | GPL, CDDL | ||||
| PhysX | Nvidia | 2004 | 2015 | ? | At GDC 2015, Nvidia made the PhysX' source code available on GitHub, but requires registration on developer.nvidia.com and EULA signing. | |||
| Pine | 1989 | 1996 | ? | ? | ? | own license | Before 1996 under BSD license, it was switched to a proprietary license while still having the source code available. | |
| Performance Co-Pilot | Ken McDonell and Mark Goodwin | 1993 | December 1999 | GPL, LGPL | ||||
| Powershell | Microsoft | 2006 | August 2016 | MIT License | ||||
| Qt | Trolltech | 1991 | 1995 | FreeQT, Q Public License, GPLv2, LGPLv2.1, LGPLv3 | First released as open source under the FreeQT license, then QPL. Later released as GPLv2. Qt 4.5 and later are released under the LGPLv2.1. Until 2005 the Windows version was only under proprietary license. | |||
| Quake | id Software | 1996 | 1999 | GPLv2 | The map sources were also released under the GPL in 2006. | |||
| RSD Game-Maker | Andrew Stone | 1991 | 2014 | MIT license | After some consultation with the user base, on 12 July 2014 original coder Andy Stone released the Game-Maker 3.0 source code on GitHub, under the MIT license. | |||
| Rise of the Triad | 3D Realms | 1994 | 2002 | GPLv2 | Only the code was released under the GPL. | |||
| Samsung TV firmware for LN52A650 | Samsung | ? | 2010 | GPLv2 | Was released in 2010 after a successful lawsuit against copyright violators of BusyBox by the Software Freedom Law Center in 2009. Was later also the base for the community SamyGO project. | |||
| Scilab | INRIA and École nationale des ponts et chaussées | Scilab license / later CeCILL | Before v5 Scilab's source code was distributed under the non-commercial "scilab license". | |||||
| Second Life client | Linden Lab | 2003 | 2007 | GPL v2 | The client was released under GPLv2. | |||
| SimCity | Don Hopkins | 1989 | 2007 | GPL v3 | Free version released as 'Micropolis' | |||
| Solaris | Sun Microsystems | 1989 | 2005 | CDDL | Free version released as OpenSolaris. | |||
| StarOffice | Sun Microsystems | 1986 | 2000 | LGPL/SISSL | Free version released as OpenOffice.org, now released only under the LGPL. StarOffice is still released separately under a proprietary license, using mostly the same code; Sun requires all contributors to the main OpenOffice.org project assign joint copyright to Sun. | |||
| Stellar Frontier | Stardock | 1997 | 2008 | STARDOCK SHARED SOURCE STELLAR FRONTIER LICENSE | Stellar Frontier is a multiplayer space strategy/shooter game made by Doug Hendrix in 1995 and published by Stardock. Stardock closed the master server on 4 August 2006, ceasing official support for multiplayer mode but released the source code under a shared source license in 2008. | |||
| Symbian | Nokia | 1997 | 2010 | EPL / Nokia Symbian License | ||||
| Synfig | Robert Quattlebaum | 2001 | 2005 | GPL | Some more information is available on the Synfig. | |||
| Take 2 | Cellsoft / Geert Vergauwe | ? | 2015 | "open source freeware" | The popular animation software for the Amiga was gifted in 2015 to the community by the original developer, including the 68k assembly source code. | |||
| TensorFlow | ? | 2015 | Apache license 2.0 | TensorFlow was originally developed by the Google Brain team for Google's research and production purposes and later released under the Apache 2.0 open source license on 9 November 2015. | ||||
| Technicolor TC72xx chipset cable modem firmware/eCos | Technicolor | 2008 | 2015 | ? | GPLv2, lGPL, eCos 2.0 license | Released on GitHub on 30. November 2015. | ||
| Tesla Model S | Tesla Inc. | 2012 | 2018 | GPLv2 | Tesla released source code on a github.com repository as part of their GPL-compliance process for the Tesla Model S in collaboration with Software Freedom Conservancy. | |||
| Tesseract OCR | HP and UNLV | 1985 | 2005 | Apache License 2.0 | Released as free and open-source software by HP and UNLV | |||
| TextMate 2 | MacroMates | 2004 | 2012 | GPL v3 | In August 2012, TextMate 2's source code was published on GitHub under the terms of the GPLv3. It remains a commercial product and users are required to purchase a license from Macromates. Odgaard stated he prefers receiving patches as public domain as this preserves his ability to release a future version under a more permissive license, or to make a version available on the Mac App Store. | |||
| Toonz | Digital Video S.p.a. | 1993 | 2016 | BSD license | On 19 March 2016 it was announced that Toonz will be released as Free and open-source software on 26 March 2016. It was released under BSD license to github. | |||
| Torque 3D / Torque 2D | Dynamix / GarageGames | 2001 | 2012 | MIT License | Developed for Tribes 2. Released as free and open-source software by Dynamix and later by GarageGames. | |||
| TurboCASH | Pink Software | April 1985 | July 2003 | GPL | ||||
| Turbo Vision | Borland | 1990 | 1997 | Public domain software | Around 1997, the C++ source code was released by Borland into the public domain. It is developed by the open-source community under a GPL license and a BSD license branch. | |||
| v7 Unix | Caldera International | 1979 | 2002 | BSD-like license | In 2002, Caldera International released V7 Unix as FOSS under a permissive BSD-like software license. | |||
| v8 Unix, v9, v10 | Unix Heritage Society and Alcatel-Lucent | 1985 | 2017 | non-copyright enforcement grant on non-commercial usage | In 2017, Unix Heritage Society and Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc., on behalf of itself and Nokia Bell Laboratories, released v8, v9, v10 under the condition: "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". | |||
| Chipset and graphics chips drivers and documentation | VIA Technologies | 200? | 2005/2008 | GPL | ||||
| Unrar | Rarlabs | 1995 | 2000 | own unrar license | Unrar source code was released by Eugene Roshal/RARlabs sometime in 2000. A GPL fork of older codebase exists. | |||
| Warzone 2100 | Pumpkin Studios/Eidos Interactive | March 1999 | December 2004 | GPLv2 | Video game by Eidos Interactive | |||
| Watcom C compiler | Watcom | 1988 | 2003 | Sybase Open Watcom Public License | Released as Open Watcom, under a license which is considered free by the OSI 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. | |||
| WebOS | Hewlett-Packard | 2009 | 2012 | Apache license | Written originally in 2009 by Palm, in December 2011 HP announced it would release the WebOS source code in the near future under an open-source license. In August 2012, code specific to the existing devices was released as WebOS Community Edition, with support for the existing HP hardware. | |||
| Windows Live Writer | Microsoft | 2012 | 2015 | MIT License | An open source fork of Windows Live Writer was released as Open Live Writer on 9 December 2015. | |||
| Wintermute Engine | Dead:Code Software | 2003 | 2013 | MIT license | The source code of the portable Wintermute Lite 2D engine has been released by author Jan Nedoma under a MIT License on Bitbucket. It is also Donationware, as the author asks for donations for continued development. Also Wintermute 1.x and Wintermute 2 were released under MIT. In 2012 ScummVM integrated the WME lite engine into their framework. | |||
| Xenko | Silicon Studio | 2014 | 2014 | GPLv3 | Xenko, formerly known as Paradox, is a C# game engine with an asset pipeline and a cross-platform runtime supporting iOS, Android, Windows UWP, Linux, and PlayStation4. It was made free and open-source software in October 2014. Xenko beta version 1.8x was then released finally out of beta in February 2017. | |||
| Xerox Alto | Computer History Museum | 1975 | 2014 | own non-commercial license | On 21 October 2014, Xerox Alto's source code and other resources were released from the Computer History Museum. | |||
| XMind | XMind Ltd. | 2007 | 2008 | Eclipse Public License and LGPL | Mindmapping software based on the Eclipse RCP | |||
| ZFS | Sun Microsystems | 200? | 2005 | CDDL | The innovative next-generation file system was released by Sun Microsystems under an open-source license in 2005. Due to an potential license incompatibility of the GPL with the CDDL it wasn't 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. |