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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] Competitor Review
From:       Segedunum <segedunum () actuaria ! co ! uk>
Date:       2004-12-12 20:35:34
Message-ID: 41BCAB96.4060208 () actuaria ! co ! uk
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On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 17:12:09, steve@orplex.com wrote:
> My guess is that they are taking shots at QT's dual licensing -- but thinking about \
> it -- is it a good idea for GNOME to talk about FREE more than features or benefits \
> of GNOME for the  user -- i mean does the casual user really care about the subtext \
> of what free means? If you ask me -- joe blow cares more about what he get from \
> using it -- i mean if i can  download both for free -- why do i care about the \
> LGPL? I care more about what lets me do  what i want with PC better

He, he, he... You're right on the money here.

In your review (sorry, haven't managed to read fully yet) you may want to consider \
looking at how open source software (KDE, Gnome et al) is funded in terms of its \
development. Development in the open source community is where everything stems from, \
naturally enough. You then have to look at how much that costs in terms of \
development time, and also the quality of the development tools used. Yes, Gnome and \
other projects may make a big thing of the LGPL licensing (especially for their \
development 'tools'), but you have to consider how the development of those tools are \
funded in terms of development time and effort.

The problem with the LGPL as a primary license (it certainly has its uses, don't get \
me wrong) is that it assumes that there will be unlimited developer time to develop \
not just a desktop environment and applications, but also to put a lot of effort into \
creating 'free' development tools. As we have seen with the involvement of companies \
like Novell in hiring Mono developers and the amount of resources consumed \
(literally) by companies like Ximian, Eazel and others with no appreciable return on \
investment to ensure future development, the all-LGPL model of 'funding' development \
is quite clearly flawed. It just is not sustainable in the long-term, as any cutbacks \
at a company like Novell would involve the axing of any development that doesn't make \
a reasonably direct return on investment. The development tools are also quite \
clearly not good or feature-complete enough to be used in company and organisational \
development environments, the very places they've been 'trying' to court. This cycle \
of funded development is encapsulated quite well on Trolltech's website:

http://www.trolltech.com/company/model.html

You are right - the LGPL licensing over the years has been used for all the wrong \
reasons, but the people that have done so just haven't understood that it is not any \
sort of a selling point. Mention paying licenses for development tools and \
organisations (even small development businesses) will not bat an eyelid. It is also \
perfectly reasonable to expect people not contributing back through the GPL, and \
developing software to sell or get productivity gains from, should pay for its \
future. No one in any serious business set up (outside of some of the usual open \
source community attitudes) will question that at all.

With a good partnership with a company like Trolltech, and using a solid base in Qt \
that has a sensible business model, KDE is in an excellent position for the future. \
Through this, everyone involved with free software and KDE (developers and users \
alike) will continue to feel the benefits of having a solid and stable development \
base. Everyone else promoting 'LGPLd' development tools at the desktop end will be \
rummaging around for years trying to find that solid base, and worse, they'll need to \
find a way to fund it because what they have now is just not sustainable. The server \
end suites completely free development, but the desktop end does not because it is \
inherently more complex.

No, Qt is 'not' free for everything, and long may it continue. You can put that down \
as a very definite strength. Some people may dismiss this as 'FUD', but that's the \
way things are - I can't say it any other way. The sooner people realise it the \
sooner free and open source software development at the desktop end can move forwards \
beyond the hype of the last few years.

Cheers,

David


 
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