Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by not me on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @02:14

>In any event, nice move from the trolls (at troll tech :)

No kidding! They've managed to make everyone happy - people who want to write GPL QT apps for personal use now get automatic Windows compatibility, which is a big win; plus they still get to sell QT to the only people who really pay for it - that is, corporations.

As was pointed out in an earlier thread, much of Trolltech's revenue comes from QT licenses for in-house specialized corporate apps. Therefore if QT/Win was GPL, corporations would simply GPL their in-house apps and avoid paying Trolltech, and the open-source community wouldn't even benefit because the in-house GPL apps would never make it outside of the companies.

Now they still make money here because corporations still have to pay even for in-house software, plus they gain more experienced QT developers because of QT's increased popularity (now it's the best free cross-platform widget set) and widespread availability on multiple platforms. Sounds like a QT/Win win win situation all around :-)

The only problem I see is now that a binary of QT/Win is freely downloadable, some unscrupulous corporations might just use it despite the license. It wouldn't be very likely that a corporation doing this would be caught.

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Justin on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @10:22

> The only problem I see is now that a binary
> of QT/Win is freely downloadable, some
> unscrupulous corporations might just use it
> despite the license. It wouldn't be very
> likely that a corporation doing this would
> be caught.

Yeah, I have a feeling Trolltech might lose some money with this move. However, they will probably gain more than they lose.

Lots of Windows programs these days are non-commercial. I've even seen some GPL Windows apps. It's clear that some Windows developers do agree with free-software, the trouble is they code with the ultra-unportable MFC. Now all those developers can use Qt instead (and after they first use it they'll never go back). In other words, Qt usage will go up. More popularity for Trolltech in the Windows world.

The only part I'm not too clear on is the GPL aspect, and I should find out soon because I have a GPL Qt/X11 app I'm about to release and now I can make a Windows version too :) Of course, it's _my_ app so I could change the license for the Windows port if necessary.

I hope they do this for the upcoming Qt/Mac too. Get the world using Qt, get them coding cross-platform from the start.

-Justin

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Jon on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @10:44

Just make it LGPL instead. LGPL's the more sensible license choice, anyway.

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Casteyde on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @20:10

Exactly the same as piracy. They already had the problem with their old licenses...

In fact, I think companies want to pay for support / development of good stuffs. Even if it's available for download. Piracy is only a matter of people, not of companies, and people take less their company benefits in account than their own wallet... (no VAT, taken from benefits, etc.).

I already think this move is great both for Qt and free software. Windows developers can now build Qt apps easily for fun, and these apps will go naturally to KDE / Linux.

The other way is simply unbeleivable : why use Konqueror on Windows, where IE is there and (still) by far better ?

When you open a door, between two rooms, people of the more crowded one will ever go to the less one... So it's all benefits for free software, and it's all benefits for Qt which becomes a de facto standard.

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