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Trolltech Adopts GPL 3 for Qt

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the for-making-cute-software dept.

Funkmaster F writes "At the KDE Developer Conference today, Trolltech CEO Havaard Nord announced that its Qt application development toolkit will be released under GPL 3. 'Here at the KDE release event, Nord's announcement was met with applause. Like Trolltech's initial decision to move from its own QPL license to the GPL, this announcement and the company's more recent decision to adopt the GPL for all platforms rather than just Linux, demonstrate the company's ongoing commitment to openness.'"

5 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Gnome by AJWM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It gives the developer using the library more freedom, not everyone else. Hence the FSF's name change of the LGPL from "Library GPL" to "Lesser GPL".

    Of course it's the same argument that BSD license proponents put forth. It boils down to who you're talking about, the developer or the downstream users (who may also be developers). As a user, I prefer the GPL. As a developer, I only care if I want to release a closed-source application. (And I'll take a BSD or LGPL'd library over a closed-source proprietary one so that I retain control over my own software; it sucks when your library vendor changes things, or it doesn't work quite as documented.)

    --
    -- Alastair
  2. Re:Firefox (and OpenOffice more or less) by pherthyl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I simply find stupid the idea of having two different installed toolkits on the same computer

    Why? That makes no sense whatsoever. Unless you really can't spare the extra ~5mb of ram, what's the issue? You realize that Windows is probably running about 5 different toolkits at once right?

    less importantly but still somewhat relevant, OpenOffice

    You do realize that Openoffice uses its own toolkit called VCL, right? Which means, that your computer has two different toolkits installed! Egad! Quick, uninstall Openoffice!
    The only reason it integrates into Gnome is because there is a GTK compatibility layer, just like there is a Qt compatibility layer for KDE.

    Not to mention Firefox uses XUL and XBL. GTK can be used to render some interface widgets, but that is minor in comparison.

  3. Re:GPL can be anti-freedom too by chromatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because you were cunning enough to use the GPL, you can hold them to ransom, and charge them $1M for a limited license that lets them use your shiny widget in their new project. And whats more, you can sell it all over again the next time someone needs your shiny widget in a non-GPL setting.

    My goodness, it's almost as if you had some way to make companies who don't want to participate in the development of free software participate by funding it! That's so... evil?

    --
    how to invest, a novice's guide
  4. Re:GPL can be anti-freedom too by Sam+Douglas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    more than a few of them are fully aware of just how much control copyright reserves for them, and they love it. It is not limited to the GPL.
  5. Re:GPL can be anti-freedom too by debatem1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is supposed to be a bad thing, I take it? As I see it, the alternative for the software house would have been to just release their code. Open source, or pay up and fund future open source development. Seems like a pretty big win-win for the community to me.