Licenses & trademarks.
RuscaLinux is not a single program with a single licence. It's a curated collection of free software — plus the firmware some hardware needs to work — each part carrying its own terms.
Many programs. Many licences. One desktop.
RuscaLinux is built on Debian Stable (currently trixie) and ships thousands of packages. Each one keeps the licence chosen by its own authors — there is no single licence that covers the whole system. The vast majority is free and open-source software released under terms such as the GPL (v2 and v3), the LGPL, and the MIT, BSD and Apache licences, among others.
Every package carries its own licence text. On an installed system you can read it
for any package under /usr/share/doc/<package>/copyright, and
Debian documents the same information for its whole archive.
Non-free firmware is included.
Why it's there
To make Wi-Fi adapters, graphics cards and other hardware work out of the box,
the RuscaLinux image includes Debian's non-free-firmware component.
This firmware is not free software: it is redistributable but its source
is not open. We'd rather tell you plainly than describe the system as fully free
when it isn't.
What this means
The bulk of RuscaLinux is free and open-source software. The non-free firmware is a small, clearly-defined set of components, distributed under each vendor's own redistribution terms. If you need a 100% free system, Debian offers images without this component.
Build scripts, branding, content & the name.
Build scripts — GPL-3.0
The recipes that assemble the ISO live in ruscalinux-build and are released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. You're free to study, modify and redistribute them under those terms.
The RuscaLinux name & logo — reserved
The name “RuscaLinux” and the RuscaLinux logo, emblem and wordmark are not covered by the GPL. They are the project's visual identity. You may not use them to name or brand your own modified distribution, or in any way that implies endorsement or affiliation. If you build a derivative, please replace the RuscaLinux branding with your own. Full terms are in TRADEMARK.md.
Website content — CC BY-SA 4.0
The editorial content of this website — the text, copy, illustrations and photography — is the original work of Nunzio Curcuruto and the RuscaLinux project, © 2026, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence. You are free to copy, translate, adapt and republish it, in any medium and for any purpose, on two conditions: you credit RuscaLinux as the source and link to the licence, and you release anything you build on it under the same licence. This is what stops anyone from passing the work off as their own or locking it away. This licence covers only the project's own material: third-party logos, icons and screenshots of included software are not ours to license and remain under their respective licences. The RuscaLinux name and logo, covered above, are not part of this licence and remain reserved.
Other marks
Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Debian is a registered trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. Red Hat is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. RuscaLinux is an independent project and is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, any of them.
Questions about licensing or permission requests: info@ruscalinux.org.