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List:       koffice
Subject:    Re: Re: I know this is annoying, but
From:       Claus Wilke <claus.wilke () gmx ! net>
Date:       1999-10-29 11:48:41
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> BTW: It is perfectly legal to link to Qt in GPL programs if the author
> permits it, which is implied if the author is the one requiring the
> linking. Don't believe what you read on SlashDot :P

I know that, and I don't believe what I read on slashdot without checking
the facts myself, it was just this slashdot thread which made me think about
my actual point of my mail. Maybe I should not have started with this GPL
and QPL stuff, which is not my concern (as I mentioned). 

My point is: if you use the GPL (as opposed to the LGPL, BSD, Artistic,
whatever) for key libraries of your system, you lock out potential programmers
that (for what ever reason) cannot or do not want to use the GPL. If glibc
was GPL, there wouldn't be star office for linux, nor would there be
mozilla, nor netscape....

In the current liscensing scheme, Sun could port star office to gnome, but
not to KDE. 

So what I want to say is: if you want koffice (and kde in general) to
become the leading office suite (desktop), you should consider very carefully if
it is really important to you to *lock out* any non-GPL software from using
your *libraries*, and if this is not the case, then don't use the GPL, but
the LGPL.

Best,
  Claus


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