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As a KDE fan, the recent changes to QT's licensing have me concerned. [1] Given that Flutter compiles to native code, and doesn't require shipping a V8 engine w

As a KDE fan, the recent changes to QT's licensing have me concerned. [1] Given that Flutter compiles to native code, and doesn't require shipping a V8 engine with each application like Electron, this seems like a reasonable decision for them to make. 1: https://www.qt.io/blog/qt-offering-changes-2020 https://www.qt.io/blog/qt-offering-changes-2020

ldiracdelta 6y ago
The KDE foundation is in the mix to ensure an open source path: http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-kde/ http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-... however, https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2020q2/006098.html https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2020q2/006098.h... End of last year they did release 6.0, so it looks like they're not hiding their releases for a year. You won't get the LTS fixes, for a year though. For me, this means I have to stay on 5.15 until 6.2( because of location module) is one year released -- summer 2022.
- sho_hn 6y ago
  You don't have to wait a year for 6.2. 6.2 will be released immediately, and also the initial bugfix releases (e.g. a future 6.2.1, or most recently 6.0.1). Only once a particular version branch is declared LTS do additional bugfix releases become commercial-only - with 6.x, that means the next feature release (and perhaps even bugfix releases for that) will most likely be already available by the time an older branch goes LTS. Additionally, Qt changed its approach to bugfix commits to go to dev first and then get backported, so even if a distro is stuck on an older version branch in LTS mode, critical fixes will be available publically and can likely be backported manually. Overall the change to the LTS support strategy isn't amazing, but it's impactful mainly to 5.15.x since it's LTS and the transition to Qt 6 will take some time. Once the transition is over I suspect it won't be a significant issue however.
  - ldiracdelta 6y ago
    Fantastic! I really want Qt 6 because of the QML compiling and even the ability to nuke the javascript engine, if possible. I want to try out the low end targeting as well. So, if you report a bug in 6.2, then you'll get the bug fixes in 6.3, assuming the fix got into the dev trunk before the end of the 6.3 release window?
    - sho_hn 6y ago
      Yes. But you may also get the fix in 6.2.1 and 6.2.2 and who knows how many - until 6.2 is declared LTS (and only if that happens), then those 6.2.x releases become commercial-only from that point on.

ldiracdelta 6y ago

The KDE foundation is in the mix to ensure an open source path: http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-kde/ http://www.olafsw.de/a-better-qt-because-of-open-source-and-... however, https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2020q2/006098.html https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-community/2020q2/006098.h... End of last year they did release 6.0, so it looks like they're not hiding their releases for a year. You won't get the LTS fixes, for a year though. For me, this means I have to stay on 5.15 until 6.2( because of location module) is one year released -- summer 2022.

sho_hn 6y ago
You don't have to wait a year for 6.2. 6.2 will be released immediately, and also the initial bugfix releases (e.g. a future 6.2.1, or most recently 6.0.1). Only once a particular version branch is declared LTS do additional bugfix releases become commercial-only - with 6.x, that means the next feature release (and perhaps even bugfix releases for that) will most likely be already available by the time an older branch goes LTS. Additionally, Qt changed its approach to bugfix commits to go to dev first and then get backported, so even if a distro is stuck on an older version branch in LTS mode, critical fixes will be available publically and can likely be backported manually. Overall the change to the LTS support strategy isn't amazing, but it's impactful mainly to 5.15.x since it's LTS and the transition to Qt 6 will take some time. Once the transition is over I suspect it won't be a significant issue however.
- ldiracdelta 6y ago
  Fantastic! I really want Qt 6 because of the QML compiling and even the ability to nuke the javascript engine, if possible. I want to try out the low end targeting as well. So, if you report a bug in 6.2, then you'll get the bug fixes in 6.3, assuming the fix got into the dev trunk before the end of the 6.3 release window?
  - sho_hn 6y ago
    Yes. But you may also get the fix in 6.2.1 and 6.2.2 and who knows how many - until 6.2 is declared LTS (and only if that happens), then those 6.2.x releases become commercial-only from that point on.