Can I use GPL software binaries in commercial environment?
I have a concern of using GPL v2 and GPL v3 licensed software in commercial production environment. I would like to use HaProxy as a load balancing solution. Is it safe against copy-left? I won't modify anything from source code and the architecture of the system requires the use of a load balancer.
It will be embedded in a larger distributed system. So what we sell is the whole system. On another site, we will need to install the load balancer again and could mix with something else. I think it's the "Distributing" term which is confusing me.
Answer
If you're distributing (unmodified) binaries along with a product you ship, then you're required to distribute the source with them, or provide a way for people to request the sources. This is not a situation where you can ignore the GPL, but it's not going to be a real problem for you. The GPL won't infect your proprietary software unless you link to it.
Distributing in this sense means giving (or selling) to customers. If you're just using a distributed (multi-node) system inside your company, then you're entirely in the clear, as yan says.
Incidentally, the GPLv2 (v3 here) is written to be read by non-lawyers. I strongly recommend you take a look at it. If English isn't your first language, translations are available in many languages.