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QT/Win 3.3.3 To 'Reach Production State Soon'

Posted by timothy on from the so-will-windows dept.

sebFlyte writes "The KDE Cygwin team are reportedly closing in on a native port for QT to allow said graphical framework to run over Windows. This has upset a few people, who think that porting open source apps to Windows is strengthening MS's near monopoly and damaging Linux." (Of course, KDE also runs on OSes besides Linux.)

8 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe I Don't Understand... by FlipmodePlaya · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm guessing a native port of KDE was impossible because Qt for Windows is not released under the GPL. Now, however, Trolltech will be releasing it under the GPL. Does this mean all the work of porting it was needless? Furthermore, does this mean we'll see an influx of Qt apps being ported to Windows now that they're free to use Qt on that platform?

    1. Re:Maybe I Don't Understand... by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 3, Informative

      TrollTech is releasing QT/Win 4 under the GPL. Their version of QT/Win 3 will not be released under the GPL, so this work is not completely redundant. Furthermore, I am almost positive that this project is what prompted TrollTech to GPL QT/Win 4. They have stated many times before that they would not, but when faced with the possibility of having QT/Linux 4 ported to Windows out of their control, they very wisely chose to GPL their own version instead to keep the QT developer community from fragmenting.

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    2. Re:Maybe I Don't Understand... by eivindthrondsen · · Score: 5, Informative

      No. We were aware of the project but it did not play a major role in the decision process leading up to the decision to dual license Qt 4.

      --
      Eivind Throndsen, Trolltech AS
  2. Re:WTF by hawkstone · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, I assume they actually mean Qt, believe it or not. This previous story may help explain.

    In short, the Qt version for Windows is only available under the GPL/QPL license for an ancient version, 2.3.0 I believe. There is a GPL version for 3.3.3 for X11, but the modern Windows versions are only available under a commercial license. Thus, I assume the KDE are modifying the X11 one to run natively under Windows so that they can use the GPL licensed version.

  3. Re:Huh? Why? by spectral · · Score: 2, Informative

    Because my hope is that with it will come kde's ioslaves, and I absolutely love that concept. Install an ioslave, and all of a sudden every kde program knows how to do sftp, smb, whatever. I could maybe find a way to mount http (webdav), ftp, sftp, whatever to my normal tree, but being able to browse in any file window for sftp://me@server/ is just so useful (to me) it's not even funny.

    That and I find myself consistently annoyed by various things about windows: single entry clipboard, lack of "Always on top" on every window, no window shading, application-based keyboard layout setting (seriously, what the hell. It changes my global keyboard shortcuts like windows+L for lock/logout depending on what keyboard layout I'm in in the current program. GLOBAL keyboard shortcuts. grr.)

    Most of those are just the way windows works, and they probably won't follow KDE over if/when it comes to windows fully (I sometimes run the kde/cygwin port, which does all this I believe, but has to run an X server for it. Nothing at all like what you'd get from running a real kde/windows port.. which probably won't end up managing its own clipboard, keyboard layout, window manager, etc..)

  4. Have we forgotten? by HexaByte · · Score: 3, Informative

    Have we forgotten what the LAST component was that made open source Unix (GNU/Linux) possible?

    It was the KERNEL!

    Getting people to run GNU apps on "real" Unix came first. Perhaps we can get people to run good apps and a good desktop on Windoze, then bring them over to Linux.

    And even if we don't we open up a whole new area for the superior, Open Source apps!

    --
    HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
  5. Re:Huh? Why? by Brandybuck · · Score: 2, Informative

    But why KDE the desktop environment?

    Because the Windows desktop sucks. Of all the desktops out there, Windows is the worst. Hear me out! I'm not talking about installing applications (even though I prefer package managers to installers), because that's not the "destkop". I'm not talking about the plethora of drivers for Windows, because that's not the desktop either. And I'm not talking about the feature packed-ness Word, Visual Studio or Outlook, because again, those are not the desktop.

    There is not z-order control or snap-to in Windows. No shading. There are no multiple desktops. The "show desktop" button isn't a toggle. No network transparency. Primitive drag-n-drop. That's just for starters. Other than some new skins and new weirdass menus that keep changing and hiding entries, the Windows desktop hasn't progressed one month past 1995.

    --
    Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
  6. Re:Huh? Why? by aminorex · · Score: 2, Informative

    People want native applications, like KOffice, Kdevelop, etc. KDE applications require KDE libraries. KDE must be ported in order to build those applications. All of this porting leads to momentum, so that people arent' asking "why?", but "why not?". Then they do it. The benefit is that once you replace all the Microsoft GUI software with KDE, the system is indistinguishable from from a Linux or Solaris or BSD system for the naive user, and thus Windows becomes mooted. Why is that beneficial? Because the more Bill gets, the less you get. Because choice is good. Because sometimes I'm forced to used Windows, and I don't want to learn how to use it.

    --
    -I like my women like I like my tea: green-