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List:       kde-freeqt
Subject:    [freeqt] Call to finish Harmony
From:       Carl Thompson <cet () elinux ! net>
Date:       1998-11-20 13:50:18
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Hello,

     I am writing this message in order to persuade developers to finish
Harmony now instead of shelving it because of the QT license change.  I
think it would be best for Linux to have a completely free desktop.  I don't
think it's right for people to have to pay TT to develop commercially for
Linux.  I don't have to pay Cygnus to use egcs.  I don't have to pay RedHat
to use RPM.  Why should I have to pay TT to write a commercial GUI program?

     The very reason that many users and developers are switching to Linux
is that they don't haven to pay anyone to use it and there isn't a single
company making arbitrary API changes that affect everyone's programs.  Why
make Linux more like Windows?  TT could even give their own software
developers advance knowledge of API changes to give them an advantage-- just
like Microsoft!

     If we allow TT to be the sole keeper of the core library for GUI
programs under Linux, we are doing the Linux community a disservice.  This
central library is much too important to have under a license that isn't at
least as free as the LGPL.

     I have been a software engineer for many years.  While I have never
used QT, I do use KDE as my desktop.  (I am a core developer for FLTK, a
great, small, good-looking, cross-platform, LGPLed GUI toolkit. 
http://fltk.easysw.com )  I have a lot of experience in the software
development world, and the more experience I get the more I realize that
for-profit software companies are not interested in doing what's best for
users and developers, but only in doing what's best for their bottom line. 
They are in the business of making money, and that is the fundamental
incompatibility between them and Linux, which is in the business of being
the best OS platform in the world.

     I know many of you don't believe that what I say will come to pass. 
But it will, and the first step is when the Harmony developers settle for a
perceived "good enough" instead of finishing something truly free.  Even if
you still can't believe it, finish Harmony just in case!

     I hereby volunteer what little free time I have to finishing the
Harmony project.  (Hopefully someone can bring me up to speed on the API and
the development model?)  If there are other developers who think that
Harmony should continue now, send mail to Jo Dillon (who I believe is in
charge?) telling him so.


Thank you,
Carl Thompson

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