Slashdot Mirror
Trolltech to Extend Dual-License to Qt/Windows
scc writes "
Trolltech announced today
that Qt 4 will be available on Windows under the GPL.
While Trolltech has long dual-licensed
Qt on X11 (Linux, various Unixes), Mac, and embedded,
Windows developers have had no options other than a commercial license."
Can't I just download their software under the GPL, and redistribute it to anyone to be used under any setting at all?
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
Didn't someone external to Trolltech port the GPL-licenced code to Windows and licence it under the GPL? Without special clauses in the licence to prevent that, that would presumably be allowed.
Or, do the X11 and Windows versions differ so greatly that such a port is an insurmountable task?
since they have a large audience now that can take advantage of them maybe LyX will start accelerating development and adding in some nice features that will make document creation much more productive.(integrate a bib database for god sakes!!!)
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Goodbye, MFC.
This is exactly what has been requested by many Qt/KDE developers over many years. This will bring about a flourish of new applications being ported from linux to windows (whether you like that or not). This will heat up the Gtk vs. Qt arguments as a major argument against Qt no longer holds. This will also help push KDE Enterprise efforts as many enterprise concerns will be resolved by this move. Good move Trolltech!
QT is the base of KDE, no? So when do we get KDE for windows?
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
I was under the impression that Trolltech did have a GPLed version of Qt for Windows. I thought it was the one included in their GUI programming book (the book is at home so I can't look it up myself). I also seem to recall at least a few projects stating that if you contacted Trolltech and notified them that you were working on an open source project and would like Qt for Windows, they'd give it to you for free (although maybe under a different license?).
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
Yea! Hopefully, now since cross platform OSS programs can now use QT, the GTK will die an awful awful death. No more hassle making custom widgets in C. Thank the lord. I hope that there is at least some very good competition between QT and GTK now. They are now fighting on relatively equal licensing ground now.
That's not true, I installed Qt3 on my Windows machine and I had the option of using the GPL.
I came on a CD with this book http://vig.prenhall.com:8081/catalog/academic/pro
We have asked Canopy to divest since SCO turned against Linux. Unfortunately under US and Norwegian law you cannot force someone to sell something. We have sold all our investments in Canopy companies a long time ago. We do not like the fact that Canopy and SCO owns shares in Trolltech. The irony is that they became shareholders because the old Canopy/Caldera wanted us to continue to create good Linux software. Canopy/SCO owns a very small share of Trolltech and has no control or influence whatsoever on the strategy and operations of Trolltech. Trolltech is controlled by it's employees. Eirik Chambe-Eng (President, Trolltech) -----
There is nothing weird about the Trolltech Open Source license. The Open Source edition of Qt uses the standard GPL. For further questions, please see our FAQ.
Eivind Throndsen, Trolltech AS
As a Windows C++ developer, Qt4 is now open-source for my purposes. Since Qt4 is obviously much better than MFC this is very significant.
But it is very frustrating since Qt could have been a very significant C++ framework on windows if it had done this years ago. Now it is a bit late for most of us.
The other frustrating thing is that TT, in the best tradition, is pursuing lock-in (vs. standards) in QT4. By deciding to embrace templated containers in their own proprietary way, vs. the standard, STL, way, they make it much harder for a programmer like me to convert to QT, both practically and morally.
I know they will have all the usual excuses for breaking the standard (I've heard them from MS in the past). It's kind of ironic that, just when MS stops playing games and finally puts out a truly standards compliant compiler (VC7.1) with a great standard library, TT decides to imitate the old MS.
Sure - I understand that. But here's the problem: I can buy a license for Qt/Commercial from TrollTech without telling them what I plan on using it for. If they want to refuse to sell to me under those circusmstances, again, it's their right. However, even if I do tell them, there's nothing to prevent me from using it to build other projects as well - including projects that started out using Qt/GPL and my own dual-licensed source code, for example.
Basically, their "if it's GPL from the start, it has to remain GPL forever" clause of theirs has zero force; they know it, which is why their means of dealing with it is to refuse to sell you a commercial license. Before that can work, though, they need to have intimate knowledge of what you're developing, why you're developing it, what your future development plans are, etc. In other words, they need to start treating every customer as a potential license violator and criminal. Take a look at the RIAA, and you can see how well that works.
"Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9