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Yes, when someone says "commercial app" or "sell an app" I assume closed-source and expect others to do the same.
by BuckyBeaver 4y ago
Yes, when someone says "commercial app" or "sell an app" I assume closed-source and expect others to do the same.
- rhn_mk1 4y agoWe could do away with that assumption. It's not descriptive of the reality, as plenty of commercial stuff isn't closed, and neither is plenty of sold stuff. As a prescriptive position, that's not the future I want.
- BuckyBeaver 4y agoWhat's the difference between "commercial" and "sold," and what are some examples of either one for which full source is available?
- rhn_mk1 4y agoTBH I have no idea. Commercial stuff can be handed out for free, I guess? Look at Krita, OpenSUSE, RHEL, the software on the Librem 5, PinePhone, and Turris routers. Those are just from the top of my head.
- JetSpiegel 4y agoHow are any of those programs commercial? You don't pay for the software itself. Krita is donations, SUSE and RHEL is support, the others are hardware.
- jcelerier 4y agoAnd still you can make closed source apps that link against LGPLv3 Qt (or LGPLv3 anything as long as your end user has a way to patch the LGPLv3 parts) and sell them without issues?
- BuckyBeaver 4y agoI can't tell if that's really meant to be a question, but this rules out mobile and I wouldn't attempt to sell a product on any platform that has to be rebuilt by the end user.
- rhn_mk1 4y agoThe rebuilding is not a compulsion, but rather a required option. You're only ruling it out if that option is impossible (which is definitely not the case on Android).
- BuckyBeaver 4y agoI'm ruling it out because I don't consider it an acceptable level of polish (let alone ease) for any product I'd sell.
- jcelerier 4y agoI don't really understand. The immense majority of your customers will never look at the build procedures, just like almost no one looks at the Linux kernel sources & build instructions that you can get from Sony from your smart tv. It's not like it makes the software harder to use for anyone.
- BuckyBeaver 4y agoHow are they going to rebuild the software without looking at build procedures (in environments where dynamic linking isn't available)? And even in an environment where dynamic linking is available, something like the Qt runtime is not comparable to the OS itself, which is obviously already installed on all target systems. It's another component that must be installed for the software to work, and as far as I know you're not allowed to distribute it willy-nilly.
- jcelerier 4y ago