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List:       kde-freeqt
Subject:    Re: [freeqt] Future of Harmony
From:       Mosfet <mosfet () jorsm ! com>
Date:       1998-11-20 18:14:41
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Carl Thompson wrote:
> 
> Jo Dillon wrote:
> 
> > ...
> 
> >   Well, I suspect that gtk/gnome will become compatible with KDE
> > (KDE window hints, Qt-style gtk themes and so forth). I should imagine
> > that it won't be long before one can develop KDE-compatible applications
> > in gtk. If that doesn't happen I'll make it happen myself.
> 
> There's talk of abandoning GNOME now that QT is going open source.  Also,
> many developers- myself included- will never go back to writing GUI code in
> C.  I know there are C++ wrappers for GTK but they're not the same as
> writing to a native C++ library.
> 
> > > Just remember that if KDE becomes the standard Linux desktop, without
> > > Harmony we are giving TT a monopoly on a required library for commercial
> > > Linux development.  It would really suck if we allowed one company to
> > > dictate the future of all future commercial Linux applications...
> >
> >   Of course. But that won't happen.
> 
> But since they are apparently abadoning GNOME and you are abandoning
> Harmony, that is happening RIGHT NOW!
> 

That means nothing. We can patch QT till our hearts content, fix bugs,
etc. Almost all distributions have a way to apply patches on install, so
if TT does something the developer communtity doesn't like (which they
have never done thus far) we can always fix it. From my meager and
second-hand experience with Troll Tech, they have never been a big, bad,
monoploly based company. Their whole focus has been providing an
excellent toolkit that developers (including OpenSource people) like.
That won't change.

> > > Please keep developing Harmony!
> >
> >   If Trolltech really started screwing developers then those same
> > developers would consider it cheaper to bring Harmony out of retirement
> > and fund it themselves.
> 
> Yes but by then the damage could be done.  They already change the API quite
> frequently- all they need to step it up a notch and add other proprietary
> extensions which aren't under the QPL to thwart Harmony.  Why give them a
> chance?  It's best to finish Harmony now before commercial software vendors
> start relying on QT.
>

Features that are not in both editions simply won't be used, at least
not in KDE, so what good would that serve them?

KDE is probably their best method of advertisement, it would be foolish
to not make the QPL edition the best they possibly can. 

> > The threat of Harmony should be enough to keep them honest.
> 
> Just like the threat of competition keeps Microsoft honest?  Look, I'm not
> saying that TT is an evil company.  But the potential is there.  Even
> Microsoft was once a small company like TT.  And don't think that just
> because TT is not an American company they can't be as bad; I used to work
> for a Norwegian software company that had the same money-grubbing ways.
>

I don't think you really understand how closely TT interacts with and
depends on the free software community. Your whole argument seems based
on something like "What if they make QT free edition suck", which makes
no sense from their prospective. 

> Carl Thompson

-- 
Daniel M. Duley - Unix developer & sys admin.
mosfet@jorsm.com
mosfet@mieterra.com
ksiag@lowrent.org

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