Nokia switches Qt license to LGPL!

[joew]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... pment.html

Looks like they want to really push adoption, I'm really glad for this license change as Qt is so far ahead of competitors

[Tony Richards]

This is fantastic news.

I've been struggling with wxWidgets (probably more to do with "old dogs" and "new tricks" rather than any failings of wxWidgets) but I couldn't afford the licenses for QT for personal non-opensource use.

[CABAListic]

Well, that will finally make Qt the absolute best available GUI library for C++, and I can finally ditch wxWidgets alltogether. Not that I'm completely satisfied with Qt, but it's still a definite improvement

[reptor]

Thumbs up for that.

My only complaint about Qt will be removed.

[jacmoe]

Wow! That's seriously great!
I've steered clear of QT because of it's license, but now: I'm going to start using it!

[Klaim]

That unlock some useful possibilities on my side. Very nice!

[spookyboo]

Just started to use wxwidgets

[milliams]

It truly is good news. When I saw the pre-announcement on the KDE e.V. members list yesterday, my jaw hit the floor. This can only help spread the use of Qt and OGRE like with the QtOgre Framework.

[xavier]

When (and why) did Nokia buy Trolltech?

[warmi]

Great news - no more reason to use inferior stuff like wxWidgets any longer.

On the other hand, Qt won't be as profitable as it used to be and I am wondering what it will mean for future development of the library.

[milliams]

When (and why) did Nokia buy Trolltech?

They announced they were planning on buying in early 2008 and actually finished the deal in mid-2008. The reasons they bought it are not necessarily clear but I guess that at least they wanted to have control over a complete toolkit which is able to run on mobile devices (they recently ported Qt to the S60 platform) such as their smart phones and the N810 line. Since the buyout, only good things have been happening; for example, the relicensing to LGPL would never have been able to happen when Trolltech were just Trolltech, but now they're "Qt Software, a Nokia Division" they're not so dependent on licensing fees and so can be more free.

On the other hand, Qt won't be as profitable as it used to be and I am wondering what it will mean for future development of the library.

They're planning to much increase the number of developers working on Qt. This is absolutely not a 1st step towards them dropping Qt as a product. There is a definite plan ahead on how this will benefit Qt in the future. Yes, at first, Qt Software will loose money but the logic goes something like "Qt is more free, especially for proprietary developers -> more people use Qt -> more people are proficient at Qt -> Qt Software hire them -> Qt gets better". Qt being better makes Nokia products better meaning they make more money Qt will live long and prosper, don't worry.

[jjp]

On the other hand, Qt won't be as profitable as it used to be and I am wondering what it will mean for future development of the library.

Nokia concluded that, in the long term, the benefits of adopting a participatory development model and accelerating development far outweighed the value of the revenue stream that it could generate by selling commercial licenses. The commercial licenses will still be available, however, for developers who don't wish to be constrained by the terms of the LGPL. Nyström says that Nokia intends to take Qt "to the next level" by getting the community involved in improving the toolkit's performance, functionality, and platform support. Nokia will also be hiring additional full-time developers to work on the toolkit. The licensing change is clearly a win for Nokia, application developers, and a large segment of the open source software community.

We'll see but I guess making Nokia smartphones more competitive might well be more worth to Nokia than revenue stream generated by selling Qt licences. In contrast to us Nokia knows how much money Qt licensing made. And: if they didn't plan to continue developing the library they wouldn't have purchased Trolltech in the first place.

[warmi]

We'll see but I guess making Nokia smartphones more competitive might well be more worth to Nokia than revenue stream generated by selling Qt licences. In contrast to us Nokia knows how much money Qt licensing made

I am not sure how will this make their phones more competetive , everyone else would be able to use Qt in their own framework as well.

As far as Trolltech revenues , I guess it was enough to keep them going for 10 years.

[Bekas]

Fantastic!

Nokia is a hardware company so providing an accessible development environment for their phones is more important to them than the Qt license revenues (which were probably tiny compared to Nokia's revenue streams).
Also, big adoption of Qt means a lot of applications using it that can be easily ported to Nokia phones.

This will probably be a big blow for GTK+, I wonder if it can stay relevant..

[VictorMoran]

Just started to use wxwidgets

Don't be so easily discourage. WxWindows or WxWidgets is by far superior than Qt
We were using WxWindows for our editor and switched to Qt after getting the license.
When you start to using it you realize it is more hype than substance, it does not come even close to the potential of Widgets.

[xavier]

Banana bread is better than cinnamon toast.

[jacmoe]

This will probably be a big blow for GTK+, I wonder if it can stay relevant..

Aw, come on, get real. It's not that QT will rise to rule the world.

We were using WxWindows for our editor and switched to Qt after getting the license.
When you start to using it you realize it is more hype than substance

I sort of feel the same way. wxWidgets programming is enjoyable, and less restrictive than QT, which seems to be excessively bloated. Still, a great GUI library. Each one to his own.

Banana bread is better than cinnamon toast.

rofl!

[milliams]

Just started to use wxwidgets

Don't be so easily discourage. WxWindows or WxWidgets is by far superior than Qt
We were using WxWindows for our editor and switched to Qt after getting the license.
When you start to using it you realize it is more hype than substance, it does not come even close to the potential of Widgets.

I wouldn't say that's even slightly true. I'd say that any toolkit good enough to have an entire desktop environment (+ office suite + educational apps + games + system administration tools + media applications) has got plenty of substance.


Oh, and a lot of the questions being brought up here are answered in the Licensing FAQ.

[jacmoe]

I wouldn't say that's even slightly true. I'd say that any toolkit good enough to have an entire desktop environment (+ office suite + educational apps + games + system administration tools + media applications) has got plenty of substance.

You are not confusing KDE with QT here?

Oh, and a lot of the questions being brought up here are answered in the Licensing FAQ.

Are you serious?
Trolltechs site is even worse than Microsofts site. You will learn absolutely nothing from reading that FAQ.
And definitely not now.
That FAQ has been purposefully confusing, but hopefully that will change now.

[milliams]

I wouldn't say that's even slightly true. I'd say that any toolkit good enough to have an entire desktop environment (+ office suite + educational apps + games + system administration tools + media applications) has got plenty of substance.

You are not confusing KDE with QT here?

I meant to write "...an entire desktop environment (...) built on top of it has got plenty of substance."

[Bekas]

This will probably be a big blow for GTK+, I wonder if it can stay relevant..

Aw, come on, get real. It's not that QT will rise to rule the world.

That's what they said when skynet was introduced too..

[ppClarity]

Interesting to note that they've opted for LGPL 2.1 as opposed to LGPL 3. Holy crap, somebody has a clue (IMO)

[reptor]

By the way I've just been to Nokia and it was dark and cold there... did you know it is a town in Finland. That's where it all started. Rubber boots, tyres, etc. then someone figured out "Hey let's make our core business small portable phones, they will be really popular!"

KDE wins hands down the desktop fight against Gnome, so I think Gtk already lost to Qt if we compare the desktops built on top of them

I just tried the QtOgre and it seems interesting... I'll need to look at it more. I'm not yet convinced that Qt can be used as a nice in-game GUI. For non-game applications it is a very good choice I am sure of that.

[jacmoe]

KDE wins hands down the desktop fight against Gnome, so I think Gtk already lost to Qt if we compare the desktops built on top of them

That's your opinion.
I am a Gnome guy, all the way.
Not using KDE, and have no intentions of using it. It''s just too Windows-like. That's just my personal preference.
And I am not alone. Hence Gnome still being here. Choices are good.
But, still: I applaud QT, because it's a nice library.
But so is wxWindows.

[milliams]

KDE wins hands down the desktop fight against Gnome, so I think Gtk already lost to Qt if we compare the desktops built on top of them

And I am not alone. Hence Gnome still being here. Choices are good.
But, still: I applaud QT, because it's a nice library.
But so is wxWindows.

Well put. Despite being a KDE developer I can see the huge benefit of having more than one DE/toolkit around; competition is always good for innovation. This really isn't the place for a discussion on the relative merits of GNOME/KDE/XFCE/Enlightenment/ or Qt/GTK/whatever.