[conspire] Trolltech to Extend Dual Licensing to Qt for Windows

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Adrien Lamothe (a_lamothe at yahoo.com):

> Licensing has been a hot topic recently. 
> Trolltech's approach is interesting and has proven 
> successful. The URL is:
> 
> http://www.trolltech.com/newsroom/announcements/00000192.html

[Summary:  Trolltech has decided to release new versions of Qt for
Windows under dual GPL/proprietary licensing.  It already does this with
Qt's portable Unix codebase.]


That's reasonably big news -- and shows the genius of using GPLv2 as
part of a commercial software model.

The difference between GTK+ and Qt in this regard is interesting:  GTK+
is LGPL, while Qt is GTP (now on both platforms).  Therefore, one can
develop proprietary software using GTK+ without paying anyone for the 
privilege, whereas one must by a proprietary-usage license from
Trolltech to do the same with Qt.

The Progeny people's UserLinux development project -- intended to
develop a stable Debian-based platform suitable for use by corporate
interests -- have some words about that on http://www.userlinux.com/about/faq :

   Q: What will be the advantages of UserLinux?
   A: [...] Lack of lock-in: There are no licensing fees for the
      UserLinux distribution or related development tools.  [...]

   Q: Why did UserLinux decide to not included Qt based programs in the
      standard version?
   A: The long answer is available here.   [...]
      One fundamental choice of the UserLinux project is that
      development of commercial software on UserLinux should be possible
      using entirely gratis tools. For certain large organizations and
      for certain individual developers the 1,500 USD per seat license
      fee can be a real barrier to entry. Allowing at least the
      possibility of entirely gratis development of proprietary
      applications on the default desktop is a requirement for UserLinux.