Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows

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Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows

Posted by Dre on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @19:48
from the thanks-guys dept.
Trolltech, creators of the excellent cross-platform GUI library Qt on which KDE is based, announced today a new license for Qt/Windows. Called the Qt Non Commercial license version 1.0, it permits developers of non-commerical software to develop with and distribute the Windows version of Qt for free. The Qt Non Commercial Edition for Microsoft Windows is a binary-only distribution and requires Microsoft Visual Studio version 6 (download, FAQ). Excellent news, but when will we see kdelibs and Konqueror for Windows?

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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:20

>Excellent news, but when will we see kdelibs and Konqueror for Windows?

Never I hope...

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Rob Kaper on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @05:36

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by dc on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @15:20
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Thomas Zander on Saturday 30/Jun/2001, @11:38

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by KDE User on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:26

One of the more important implications is that this move could bring many Windows developers to KDE/Qt/Linux via Qt/Windows. Let's hope that a lot of Windows developers decide to jump on this deal.

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by dingodonkey on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @01:15

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Andrew on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @18:09

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Harold Hunt on Monday 02/Jul/2001, @22:58

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Magne Aga on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @11:25

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Sean on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:29

Okay, I'm excited. Muhammed and mountains spring to mind :-)

Just wondering if there would be any problems linking GPLed code like KDE against it though. Shouldn't think so as it's no different to linking against an LGPL library where you don't have to distribute the library source code. IANAL though, so I'll leave this discussion to those who know (and I'm sure this is gonna get discussed A LOT!!) Be nice to have an "official" view on this asap to prevent too much speculation.

For those who are thinking "yeah, but the underlying OS wouldn't be Open Source", just think of it as a transitionary step. Once they're all running KDE under windows, it'll be really easy to "port" the users over to Linux etc.

Things are starting to get more and more fun :-)

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Thomas on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:36
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by blandry on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @00:43

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Dre on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @02:12

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Rob Kaper on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @05:30

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Andrew on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @18:15

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by not me on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @02:07
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Rob Kaper on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @09:54

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Vedran Rodic on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @06:13

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Markus Pietrek on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @07:16

It's the same non-free crap all over again by Vedran Rodic on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @08:06

Re: It's the same non-free crap all over again by Markus Pietrek on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @08:45

Re: It's the same non-free crap all over again by Vedran on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @08:58

Re: It's the same non-free crap all over again by Markus Pietrek on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @09:08

It's the same non-free crap all over again by joe on Thursday 08/Apr/2004, @13:17

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Matthias Ettrich on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @08:46

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Vedran Rodic on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @09:21

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Vedran Rodic on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @09:30

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Matthias Ettrich on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @11:01

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Matthias Ettrich on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @11:25

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Vedran on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @12:58
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Dre on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @00:40

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by blandry on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @06:05

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Dre on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @06:44

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by blandry on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @16:11

Yipes! by Steve Hunt on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @10:04

Re: Yipes! by Andrew on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @18:24

Re: Yipes! by Casteyde on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @20:02

Re: Yipes! by Steve Hunt on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @20:11

Re: Yipes! by nap on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @08:39

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by David Johnson on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @17:46
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Harold Hunt on Monday 02/Jul/2001, @23:06

GPL doesn't allow distribution of non-GPL? by dc on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @15:33

Re: GPL doesn't allow distribution of non-GPL? by Dre on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @00:19

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by not me on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @02:14

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Justin on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @10:22

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Jon on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @10:44

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Casteyde on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @20:10

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by kev on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @08:43

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Vedran Rodic on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @09:46

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by john on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @11:27

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Ups on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:36

This changes nothing. This is a very restrictive licence. They should rather change their prices Qt/Linux-155$, Qt/Windows-2845$. It would be great !

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Moritz Moeller-Herrmann on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @21:35

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @01:52

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Carbon on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @05:15

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @18:01

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by not me on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @22:34
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Carbon on Saturday 30/Jun/2001, @23:57

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Carbon on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @05:17

kde/cygwin
by jesunix on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:38

Hey ,

there is a project to port kde under cygwin
* Xfree is running under cygwin
* the sourforge project is at the following address:
http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Sean on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:48

Yeah, but I guess it'd be easier to run KDE/Qt "natively" then via the Cygwin/XFree layers. At least it's another option though. The devil is always in the details, and it's those details that are gonna get discussed a lot in the next couple of days/weeks :-)

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Sean on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:51
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Ralf Habacker on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @10:08

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Troy Unrau on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @20:56

This is simply specatcular, if not for the simple reason that it will shut up a few of the trolling gnomers that like to discredit the validity of using Qt.

If nothing else, this could help kde in such a manner as requiring a simple underlying library change removing the depency on X. Once this is accomplished, kde will truly be universal.

Troy Unrau

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Sean on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @21:05
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by craig on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @04:15

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Bob on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @15:18

Don't blame GNOME by dc on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @15:28

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by AC on Tuesday 26/Jun/2001, @23:25

This is great news... I'm sure it will help Qt and KDE both get more acceptance...

I wonder what the reason was for this move though. I think it's probably because Troll knew that anyone could take Qt free edition for X and port it to Windows, so they would rather have an official version instead of a rogue version out there.

I haven't read the license yet but I think someone posted that the license was more restrictive than the Qt free edition for X?

If that is so, they probably looked at their options (eventual free Qt for Windows with less restrictive license, or free Qt for Windows now with a license of their choice) and though the second option was better.

What do you guys think?

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Vedran Rodic on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @09:50

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Mark19960 on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @00:37

I think, like many others that this is a good step.
maybee one day, Micro$oft will open source windows(never.. they are too greedy.)
Perhaps this will make it easier to port software from KDE to windows, and make it easier for windows users to adapt to KDE (I hope we can still change the shell in windoze.. dont use it. hehe)
this is the result of a lot of hard work. I am grateful for the work of developers all over the world making things happen. just my 2 cents :)

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by James E. LaBarre on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @15:38

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Timothy R. Butler on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @01:20

This is great. I would love to have Konqi in Windows for those times I must be in Windows (i.e. like right now <sigh>). At least I wouldn't feel so far from "home" if I had my favorite "furniture." ;-)

I might add this should also really increase exposure of QT to Windows developers, which means when they have to do a Linux programming project - they may very well choose QT over GTK, Motif/Lesstif, etc.

-Tim

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Matt on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @12:09

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Jeremy M. Jancsary on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @19:24

This is absolutely great news!

Thank you so much, Trolltech. I just wonder, might Cygwin be one of the supported compilers in the future?

The only issue right now is that one has to possess Visual C++, which is quite expensive.

Cygwin + Qt would be a great choice for win32 Open Source developers.

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Harold Hunt on Monday 02/Jul/2001, @23:11

TROUBLE!
by Jens on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @20:14

I mean it.

Microsoft just changed their developer licenses for all "Visual XYZ" products and libraries etc etc, so that you MAY NOT DEVELOP FREE SOFTWARE with Microsoft products. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/19953.html for more details. Here's an except:

"(c) Open Source. Recipient's license rights to the Software are conditioned upon Recipient (i) not distributing such Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with Potentially Viral Software (as defined below); and (ii) not using Potentially Viral Software (e.g. tools) to develop Recipient software which includes the Software, in whole or in part.

...For purposes of the foregoing, "Potentially Viral Software" means software which is licensed pursuant to terms that: (x) create, or purport to create, obligations for Microsoft with respect to the Software or (y) grant, or purport to grant, to any third party any rights to or immunities under Microsoft's intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Software.

This might just be the end of Qt on Windows, if it NEEDS Visual C++. You can either develop proprietary software (and then you must pay for Qt as well!) or you switch to Unix altogether (doesn't need to be Linux).

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Nah... by Justin on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @20:42
Re: TROUBLE! by Daniel on Wednesday 27/Jun/2001, @22:43
Viral? Haha! by dc on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @11:25
They did no such thing by DCMonkey on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @16:42

Intention of developers
by Konrad Wojas on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @00:15

I think that linking programs written for the Qt libraries to the new Trolltech no charge licensed win32 libraries should be no problem.

If I write a GPL program using a non-GPL library, for example using Qt/win32 or Motif, I implicitly allow people to link my program to this library. I don't see why it would/should be forbidden to do this. If I want write a Motif application because, for example, I know the API better than of another toolkit, but I'm also a strong GPL advocate, why should I not be allowed to release it under the GPL and make my code available for reuse in other GPL programs?

And if I've got an application using the Qt toolkit, I don't see why I can't link it to the non free win32 version of Qt. As long as this library does the same as the linux version and only has a different underlying system API it's no threath to the freedom of this program. It even enlarges this freedom by allowing people to run it on even more systems!

Just my $ 1e-2

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Re: Intention of developers by not me on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @02:39
GPL with exception by Justin on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @14:06

Re: GPL with exception by Justin on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @14:12

Legal Question?
by Jasper on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @07:36

What if a company develops a program under linux with the Qt Free Edition. but uses the software under windows with the Qt Non Commercial Edition.

after all everybody is allowed to develop using Qt Free Edition. and the non-commercial setting just effect developement and not the usage.

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? Project File .pro is missing
by neo on Thursday 28/Jun/2001, @16:36

Hi there,
I am just wondering where the project file (.pro), stated in the readme.txt, can be found after project generation? I found only the MSVC++ Project workspace and the msvc++ project .dsp file.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

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Re: ? Project File .pro is missing by Andy on Friday 29/Jun/2001, @10:02

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Sandro Sigala on Friday 29/Jun/2001, @17:14

This is really good news! Now free Qt applications can be ported to Winblows.

The bad news is that Visual C++ costs a lot of $$$; what about a Borland C++ port so that we can use the freely available Borland C++ 5.5 command line compilers?

http://www.borland.com/bcppbuilder/freecompiler/

What do you think?

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Patrick Gleichmann on Friday 29/Jun/2001, @19:15
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Jens Albers on Tuesday 03/Jul/2001, @10:30
Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Ben Porter on Thursday 05/Jul/2001, @10:16

Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by Juan M. Caravaca on Sunday 01/Jul/2001, @11:13

I'm begining to think people in Trolltech are so stupid as people in Micro$oft: they release a package to develop *ONLY* free software, but to be developed with a very expensive compiler owned by an anti-free-software company that imposes serious restrictions to free sofware development. Sincerly I can't understand it, there is a big bunch of great free C/C++ compiler for Windows (Borland command-line tools, MingWin, CygWin, RSXNT, ...)(without talk about other OO free compiled or interpreted languages).

Why, Why ?, I can't understand those mad people... Oh, what a headache !

PS: Sorry for my English, my natal language is Spanish.

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows
by nestor on Sunday 01/Jul/2001, @13:54

There is no need to enrich the Windows enviroment with such a good product and keep supporting this non-free products.Whoever wants to program GUI applications in M$-Win can do it with MFC . Open Source and Free Software must be distributed only to those who respect and support the Open Source Software idea and not to all those who keep using products hostile to Linux and open source , products .
Everyone make his choice . Isn't he ?

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Re: Trolltech: No-Charge License for Qt/Windows by Nick Whitelegg on Thursday 02/Aug/2001, @09:35

The Fine Print: The previous comments are owned by whomever posted them.
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