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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] What's the community up to?
From:       Kurt Pfeifle <k1pfeifle () gmx ! net>
Date:       2004-12-07 14:47:45
Message-ID: 200412071447.46970.k1pfeifle () gmx ! net
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On Tuesday 07 December 2004 13:59, Eva Brucherseifer wrote:
> Am Dienstag, 7. Dezember 2004 14:05 schrieb Kurt Pfeifle:
> > On Tuesday 07 December 2004 11:36, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> > > On Monday 06 December 2004 23:25, Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
> > > > On Monday 06 December 2004 19:12, Tom Chance wrote:

[....]

> > There is this (old?) idea to make KMail (and maybe even Kontact)
> > running on Windows. It could really make a big inroad into the
> > Outlook market, once we had it.
> > 
> > AFAIK, there were just 2 "smaller" problems left:
> > a) one library with an incompatible license woulld need to be
> > re-written (was it libmime?) and released under LPGL or similar
> > b) someone/someorg with a commercial license of Qt would be
> > required to build Win32 binaries and distribute them.
> 
> About b):
> kdepim is GPL not LGPL, therefore you are not allowed to link to the 
> commercial version in the first place. AFAIK the authors tried to change the 
> license (GPL+an exception for commercial QT), but a few developers refused 
> and also not all of them could be reached (all authors even of the smallest 
> peace must agree to a license change).

Hmm... here is what I was told by KMail developers: it is just that one 
library that doesnt comply. (I didnt check for the licenses myself in the 
current kmail/kdepim code, though). 

Could someone who knows better than me please firmly reject or confirm this?

> So how could this be solved? The only obvious solution is to have a Qt/Win 
> version available which has a GPL-compatible license. How can this be 
> achieved?

Of course, a Qt/Win version with such a license could be even a bigger
asset in the arsenal of OSS activists.

> 1) convince Trolltech - unlikely to happen... they only things which could 
> make this happen is either that Trolltech receives a larger amount of money 
> from some entity in order to finance the further development of Qt/Win or
> if they find a way to control license usage on Windows (or any system)

Wouldnt *that* be the same as for Linux/X11? It is free for Free Software
development on Windows, but has to be commercially licensed for proprietary
apps?

After all, they have introduced a GPL version for the Apple/Mac platform
too (without giving up the commercial one there).

To me it seems that it is rather a very plain economic consideration (which
I can understand): a GPL version of Qt/Win by Trolltech would reduce the
income from that platform more than they could sustain. But of course, that
is my personal opinion and up to Trolltech to correct me here or leave me
with my thoughts...

Cheers,
Kurt
 
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