[CS-FSLUG] Re: [Foss-cafe] NI: OfB.biz: Debate Without End: On KDE and Qt Licensing

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Tuesday 05 July 2005 08:35, Timothy R. Butler wrote:
> Thinking on the issue of licensing and KDE, an old hymn came to mind. “As
> it was in the beginning, is now, And ever shall be
” Yes, the issue of
> licensing has been a perennial problem for the Free/Open Source desktop
> and I would suggest its biggest licensing issue remains: the GPL.
>
> http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=364

it's always something isn't it? =) KDE has progressed through a litany of such 
supposed "platform killing" problems over the years and yet KDE just keeps 
getting bigger, better and stronger.

despite the recent flapping from all corners about the GPL being evil (ESR, 
you and several articles eminating from other corners of the world) the GPL 
is not such a horrible thing. it encourages and supports open source 
development. if you don't understand how that is, then you haven't paid 
attention to corporate adoption of open source over the last several years.

but to address the issue you raise in specific: can KDE make closed source 
development cheaper? sure. one way is to see if Trolltech can offer lower 
cost alternatives. another way is to provide a development environment that 
is faster and more effective to work with, which we have done, to counter the 
up front costs. as a software developer, the Qt license pays for itself in 
short order. 

and if you took Tim's rational to enterprise customers, they'd laugh at your 
face because they aren't the ones who tend to have problem with Qt licensing 
(so i found it doubly odd that you kept implying it was an enterprise 
problem). you can find exceptions, but it's the general not the exceptions 
that count. it's an issue for shareware developers and devel shops that are 
"skating by the skin of their teeth". for the latter, i understand that 
Trolltech has set up specific deals with such companies in the past on a 
case-by-case basis.

i also really love the "100 developers time $X!" math often applied to large 
devel shops and licensing in these kinds of articles since that's not how 
licensing works. there's a thing called "site licensing" and "volume 
discount". go ask Trolltech about it.

and some corrections: Novel Desktop is not GNOME only. it gives you a choice 
between KDE and GNOME on install. i'd also suggest there are other 
"enterprise desktops" out there as well, e.g. Xandros and Mandriva, but those 
use KDE and as such don't fit your thesis so well ;)

leaving Qt for KDE4 would also almost certainly kill the project. not only 
would the loss in knowledge assets be immense and probably crippling, there 
are no suitable options to replace it with. comparing replacing Qt classes in 
webcore to what would be required to replace Qt in KDE is what happens when 
people write about things they don't have much insight into. and no, we can't 
afford to take 5+ years to release KDE4.

and finally, it's really no secret that coming out of GUADEC, one of GNOME's 
PR group's primary messages for the next year is that KDE is expensive to 
develop for. i've been told this twice now personally by members of their PR 
team since GUADEC, and we're starting to see the meme appear online. i think 
it's very, very sad in this day and age when we have such bigger giants to 
slay that some projects insist on throwing stones at those they have the most 
to gain from working with.

while it is important cast light upon our own weaknesses so that we make shore 
them up, it is also important not to needlessly wound ourselves while doing 
so.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
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