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List:       kde-licensing
Subject:    Re: [freeqt] Re: FreeQt concerns
From:       Michael Will <mwill () esus ! cs ! montana ! edu>
Date:       1998-04-07 17:48:47
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> > This debate is started because a few people have seen where the LGPL 
> > would hurt Troll Tech.  This is not a good thing.   
> 
> It's a fine thing. Troll Tech are a commerical organisation in a capitalist
> world. If a rival product free or otherwise sends them under then they were
> inferior and should have vanished. Thats the capitalist ethos. 

And then there is business ethics. I know Microsoft grew big without them,
but that does not mean that you need to be like that to succeed. 

My only real critique point on FreeQT is that they are stealing the
concept. And that is a big deal because of the nature of Qt. Qt is such
a success because of the clean OOP concept extension (slots) and the
classes coming with it. Most of the money the trolltechs had to spend
on Qt must have been developing the concept, defining, refining, to get
it to the point where there is a good enough concept to implement. 

I do not think copying the implementation source is the ethical issue here,
I think it is about waiting for them to invest a heck lot of money into
coming up with a concept, and then stealing it and implementing it yourself.

Just my opinion, of course. 

Cheers, Michael Will

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