Qt is changing their licensing policies
120 views
Skip to first unread message
SegundoBob
Jan 28, 2020, 12:33:02 PM1/28/20
to leo-editor
The above link was on Hacker News yesterday. What does it mean for Leo-Editor?
SegundoBob
Matt Wilkie
Jan 28, 2020, 4:54:00 PM1/28/20
to leo-editor
The above link was on Hacker News yesterday. What does it mean for Leo-Editor?
Eeep!
I attempted and failed to find a clear answer. I think we might be relatively unaffected for a probably long period of time, as we're not downloading direct from Qt but from Anaconda and Pypi.og, and they will absorb much of the pain. Smart people are saying it will break continuous-integration server offerings like Travis which we do use, and then there's just the general community fracturing which seems likely. However it looks to me like Leo can wait and see what the overall community response is before choosing a path.
The most thoughtful analysis I came across is from a lead Krita developer who's been using Qt for 25 years. In short, his outlook is gloomy:
-matt
john lunzer
Jan 29, 2020, 6:45:39 AM1/29/20
to leo-editor
I think it's too early to tell. In addition they may post yet another policy change in reaction to user reactions, so speculation is probably not worth it at this point.
Edward K. Ream
Jan 29, 2020, 7:10:48 AM1/29/20
to leo-editor
On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 5:45 AM john lunzer <lun...@gmail.com> wrote:
I think it's too early to tell. In addition they may post yet another policy change in reaction to user reactions, so speculation is probably not worth it at this point.
I agree. Let's not panic.
Edward
SegundoBob
Apr 13, 2020, 12:48:14 PM4/13/20
to leo-editor
Subject: 380 words - "Open Source Advocates Hope They Don't Have to Fork Qt" EditorDavid
http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/_ZTZs_rvMdc/open-source-advocates-hope-they-dont-have-to-fork-qt
via SlashDot-RSS
Phoronix reports on a new concern about Qt, the free and open-source widget toolkit for creating GUIs and cross-platform applications: Wednesday a KDE developer who serves on the board of the KDE Free Qt Foundation commented that The Qt Company is evaluating restricting new releases to paying customers for 12 months. That was said to be under consideration due to COVID19 / coronavirus impacting their finances and needing to boost short-term revenues... [Slashdot editor's note: the comment also claims the Qt Company "says that they are willing to reconsider the approach only if we offer them concessions in other areas."] This comes months after The Qt Company already shifted to make Qt long-term support releases customer-only, among other steps to boost their commercial business at the beginning of the year.
Following all the speculation and concerns from the statement by KDE's Olaf Schmidt-Wischhöfer, The Qt Company released this very brief statement:
There have been discussions on various internet forums about the future of Qt open source in the last two days. The contents do not reflect the views or plans of The Qt Company.
The Qt Company is proud to be committed to its customers, open source, and the Qt governance model.
But in the event of a one-year freeze on free releases, Phoronix now reports, "several individuals and projects are already expressing interest in a Qt fork should it come to it." The hope is first and foremost that The Qt Company and KDE / KDE Free Qt Foundation can reach a mutual agreement without this embargo on future releases, which would effectively close up its development... Among those backing the concept of forking Qt as a last resort if necessary has been developers from consulting firm KDAB, the Qute browser developer, and the QGIS project as one of the leading geographic information system software packages, among many KDE developers themselves.
The mailing list thread is quite active in talking about the possible fork if necessary, including aspects like web-hosting down to what such a fork should be called ("Kt" seems to be a popular choice so far with several different members in the community).
via SlashDot-RSS
Phoronix reports on a new concern about Qt, the free and open-source widget toolkit for creating GUIs and cross-platform applications: Wednesday a KDE developer who serves on the board of the KDE Free Qt Foundation commented that The Qt Company is evaluating restricting new releases to paying customers for 12 months. That was said to be under consideration due to COVID19 / coronavirus impacting their finances and needing to boost short-term revenues... [Slashdot editor's note: the comment also claims the Qt Company "says that they are willing to reconsider the approach only if we offer them concessions in other areas."] This comes months after The Qt Company already shifted to make Qt long-term support releases customer-only, among other steps to boost their commercial business at the beginning of the year.
Following all the speculation and concerns from the statement by KDE's Olaf Schmidt-Wischhöfer, The Qt Company released this very brief statement:
There have been discussions on various internet forums about the future of Qt open source in the last two days. The contents do not reflect the views or plans of The Qt Company.
The Qt Company is proud to be committed to its customers, open source, and the Qt governance model.
But in the event of a one-year freeze on free releases, Phoronix now reports, "several individuals and projects are already expressing interest in a Qt fork should it come to it." The hope is first and foremost that The Qt Company and KDE / KDE Free Qt Foundation can reach a mutual agreement without this embargo on future releases, which would effectively close up its development... Among those backing the concept of forking Qt as a last resort if necessary has been developers from consulting firm KDAB, the Qute browser developer, and the QGIS project as one of the leading geographic information system software packages, among many KDE developers themselves.
The mailing list thread is quite active in talking about the possible fork if necessary, including aspects like web-hosting down to what such a fork should be called ("Kt" seems to be a popular choice so far with several different members in the community).
-----
SegundoBob
Edward K. Ream
Apr 13, 2020, 3:35:07 PM4/13/20
to leo-editor
On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 11:48 AM SegundoBob <segun...@gmail.com> wrote:
...in the event of a one-year freeze on free releases, Phoronix now reports, "several individuals and projects are already expressing interest in a Qt fork should it come to it."
Heh. A one-year reprieve from the dreaded software rot.
Edward
Matt Wilkie
Apr 18, 2020, 8:05:37 PM4/18/20
to leo-editor
...in the event of a one-year freeze on free releases, Phoronix now reports, "several individuals and projects are already expressing interest in a Qt fork should it come to it."Heh. A one-year reprieve from the dreaded software rot.
A prominent Qgis developer, one of the largest and most successful open source Qt based programs I'm aware of, pointed out they're currently 2 years behind current Qt on Windows because there haven't been any compelling reasons to upgrade, and the bugs that have been filed in their areas of concern aren't being dealt with on the Qt side anyway.
-matt
Edward K. Ream
Apr 20, 2020, 11:10:40 AM4/20/20
to leo-editor
On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 7:05 PM Matt Wilkie <map...@gmail.com> wrote:
A prominent Qgis developer, one of the largest and most successful open source Qt based programs I'm aware of, pointed out they're currently 2 years behind current Qt on Windows because there haven't been any compelling reasons to upgrade, and the bugs that have been filed in their areas of concern aren't being dealt with on the Qt side anyway.
Thanks for this. The takeaway is to leave the Qt code as it is, imo.
Edward
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages