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List:       kde-licensing
Subject:    Re: Linux to the mainstream
From:       Martin Konold <konold () alpha ! tat ! physik ! uni-tuebingen ! de>
Date:       1998-08-26 9:03:10
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On Wed, 26 Aug 1998, Hani Qassim wrote:

Hi Hani,

Firstly, I move the thread to kde-licensing@kde.org where it is more on
topic.

>   I've just read the original announcement.  I still think that a free
> and compatable to Qt will be needed to satisfy everyone using or

That is ok. You may think what you want. If you believe in what you wrote
you should join the coding effort of doing that piece of sw. I was mainly
objecting your statement:

"KDE built a whole new Desktop Manager to build KDE and just didn't
think about building or using another free toolkit"

> thinking to start using Linux for serious business.  

I think you are wrong. IMHO User using the K Desktop Environment in
business do not care much about licensing issues as long as it does not
interfere with their use of the software. The philosophical implications
of using free software are general and not depending on the fact if the
software is used in commercial or  non-commecial environments. 

Some GNU developers started in contrast to the load advocates their own
project for several reasons including the choice of the underlying toolkit
which is IMHO fair enough. 

I personally do not care about the concernes of shareware authors too
much either.

May I cite Linus in this respect (http://www.kde.org/food/linus.html):

"I've never regretted not making Linux shareware: I really don't like the
"pay for use" binary shareware programs that are so common in the MS-DOS
world. 
In my opinion, shareware tends to combine the worst of commercial software
(no sources) with the worst of free software (no finishing touches). I
simply do not believe in the shareware market at all." 

> The thing is to
> stop doing everything over and over and let everyone working towards
> one thing.  This is when the everyone from novice user to experts to
> companies.

Do you really think it is up to anyone to tell any freeware developer to
stop coding whatever they are working on?

Yours,
-- martin

// Martin Konold, Herrenbergerstr. 14, 72070 Tuebingen, Germany  //
// Email: konold@kde.org                                         //
Anybody who's comfortable using KDE should use it. Anyone who wants to
tell other people what they should be using can go to work for Microsoft.

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