Cygwin for Government Use

["Hanson, Richard Mr CAA" <rick dot hanson at us dot army dot mil>]

Greetings,

I work at an agency for the US Army and in making a software procurement (really, installation) request for cygwin, a few developers here were surprised to find out that RedHat charges the government for the use of cygwin.  Our IT manager:

    This software is not free to the Government.  To obtain a license to use the
    Cygwin utilities CAA would have to purchase a support agreement from RedHat.

(BTW, when he says "free," he means gratis.)

Is it true that while you seem to provide gratis downloads (and subsequent use) of cygwin to other parties, you charge a fee to government sites (for downloads and use)?  I ask you since it seemed absurd to me that he would say that, considering I have searched your website and can find no such stipulation.

Can anyone illuminate me on the matter?  I'd especially appreciate an official word from RedHat people that I could forward to my IT manager.

Thanks!
--Rick

Rick Hanson
OR Analyst
US Army Center for Army Analysis
hanson@caa.army.mil

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