4 ms·

FYI, the delay of source availability of future Qt releases is not clear. Last public discussion about the subject, to my knowledge: https://mail.kde.org/piper

by pedro2 6y ago

FYI, the delay of source availability of future Qt releases is not clear. Last public discussion about the subject, to my knowledge: https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2020q2/006098.html https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2020q2/006098.h...

tim-- 6y ago
Funnily enough, this came up in a similar comment earlier today. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23319868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23319868 It's important to note that Qt is only talking about the commercial LTS release, and not the open source version of Qt. All development of new code released in open source Qt is still released in the development branch, the open source community 'misses' the back ports into the stable (LTS) branch.
- pedro2 6y ago
  From the linked email: > As a result, they are thinking about restricting ALL Qt releases to paid license holders for the first 12 months. > They are aware that this would mean the end of contributions via Open Governance in practice. I'd venture to say this means: open-source repo will be kept public. Will we be able to match a Qt release with the corresponding source?
Nokinside 6y ago
It seems clear to me. Qt company considers that they might follow the legal agreement with the KDE Free Qt Foundation to the letter doe nothing extra. > they are thinking about restricting ALL Qt releases to paid license holders for the first 12 months. They are aware that this would mean the end of contributions via Open Governance in practice. This is the minimum they can do, and they can't do legally anything less. If they don't release free edition within 12 months... https://kde.org/community/whatiskde/kdefreeqtfoundation.php https://kde.org/community/whatiskde/kdefreeqtfoundation.php > Should The Qt Company discontinue the development of the Qt Free Edition under the required licenses, then the Foundation has the right to release Qt under a BSD-style license or under other open source licenses. The agreements stay valid in case of a buy-out, a merger or bankruptcy. KDE releasing Qt under BSD is IMHO credible threat.
- thePunisher 6y ago
  I don't understand the rationale behind this. Why would a commercial company dupe itself into restricting the licensing of its product?

by pedro2 6y ago

tim-- 6y ago

Funnily enough, this came up in a similar comment earlier today. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23319868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23319868 It's important to note that Qt is only talking about the commercial LTS release, and not the open source version of Qt. All development of new code released in open source Qt is still released in the development branch, the open source community 'misses' the back ports into the stable (LTS) branch.

pedro2 6y ago
From the linked email: > As a result, they are thinking about restricting ALL Qt releases to paid license holders for the first 12 months. > They are aware that this would mean the end of contributions via Open Governance in practice. I'd venture to say this means: open-source repo will be kept public. Will we be able to match a Qt release with the corresponding source?

Nokinside 6y ago

It seems clear to me. Qt company considers that they might follow the legal agreement with the KDE Free Qt Foundation to the letter doe nothing extra. > they are thinking about restricting ALL Qt releases to paid license holders for the first 12 months. They are aware that this would mean the end of contributions via Open Governance in practice. This is the minimum they can do, and they can't do legally anything less. If they don't release free edition within 12 months... https://kde.org/community/whatiskde/kdefreeqtfoundation.php https://kde.org/community/whatiskde/kdefreeqtfoundation.php > Should The Qt Company discontinue the development of the Qt Free Edition under the required licenses, then the Foundation has the right to release Qt under a BSD-style license or under other open source licenses. The agreements stay valid in case of a buy-out, a merger or bankruptcy. KDE releasing Qt under BSD is IMHO credible threat.

thePunisher 6y ago
I don't understand the rationale behind this. Why would a commercial company dupe itself into restricting the licensing of its product?