Re: Will the FreeQt foundation actually work?

faq
flatforty
contribute
subscribe
configure
search
rdf

main
parent
thread

Re: Will the FreeQt foundation actually work?
by Zack Rusin on Monday 28/Jan/2008, @04:07

Of course they will. The open letter to the community that Lars points to in his blog explains the situation.
In short Trolltech commitment to KDE stays completely unchanged. Look at it from the very simple perspective: the amount of resources which Trolltech has at their disposal increases a lot due to the merger and that's something to be excited about.

Related Links

·   Articles on Qt
·   Also by Zack Rusin
·   Contact author

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )

Re: Will the FreeQt foundation actually work?
by KOffice fan on Monday 28/Jan/2008, @05:03

...for the time being.

We don't know what Nokia will feel like in a few years.

I'm not happy about this. It's one thing to cooperate with a small company composed of engineers, programmers, hackers and software lovers, and a completely different thing to have the very heart of your desktop environment controlled by a multinational behemoth involved with software, telecommunications and a million other things, which started off as a cable manufacturer.

I had a far easier time trusting Trolltech than I do trusting Nokia. While things will probably stay pretty much the same in the short term (or even improve due to new funds), in the long run I'm not sure Nokia will care enough about Free Software or KDE to stop them from hurting the community if they deem it profitable.

I'm not doing this to spread the FUD, I'm simply uneasy about this.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Will the FreeQt foundation actually work?
by matze on Monday 28/Jan/2008, @07:22

well, I might add that small companies "composed of engineers, programmers, hackers and software lovers" usually aren't around for long. Those companies tend to go out of business quickly or become acquired by a "multinational behemoth". If they're lucky.

But still, I think you're mostly correct about the implications for KDE. We're no longer close to the Qt business model. KDE had a good leverage versus Trolltech because they knew well to thrive on KDEs success on the desktop. "Look how fancy things are done with our product". I wonder if Nokia cares so much...

Also I'm wondering whether the possibility exists of Nokia BSD'ing (or LGPL'ing) Qt, and whether this was good or bad. Clearly they don't need the turnover Trolltech achieves through Qt license sales.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Will the FreeQt foundation actually work?
by José Alarcón on Friday 01/Feb/2008, @03:37

Well, companies have the obligation to bring revenues to their share holders. Both big and small companies. So I don't understand this romantic view of small company composed of engineers and SW lovers... if you don't want a company to control your desktop (I don't see how Nokia could do so), use a Desktop that is not based on any technology owned by any company (I don't know if that is the case with Gnome).

Nokia started by doing paper and rubber boots. I don't think it is easy to find a company that reinvent itself as Nokia does. I just think this is positive, specially when thinking about the resources and the market penetration nokia has.

[ Reply To This | View ]

The Fine Print: The previous comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )


		"No fake - I'm a big fan of konqueror, and I use it for everything." -- Linus Torvalds
KDE®, "K Desktop Environment", "KDE Dot News", "got the dot?" and the KDE Logo® are trademarks or registered trademarks of KDE e.V. in the European Union, the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster. The rest: Copyright © 2000-2008 KDE e.V. for The KDE Project. For further information or comments on this site, please contact the Webmaster.