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Trolltech offers a choice in licensing with the addition of GPL licensing
for the upcoming release of Qt
(2000/09/04) -Trolltech announced today that it will license the
upcoming free version of Qt/Unix 2.2 under the GPL (GNU General Public
License). Developers will have the option of using the open-source
version of Qt 2.2 under either the QPL (Q Public License) or GPL
license, depending on their licensing requirements.
Qt licensed under the GPL will allow developers of free software to
use Trolltech's GUI application framework for free. Any software
produced with Qt under the GPL license, and any derivatives of this
software, must also be released under the GPL. As before, any user who
wishes to create proprietary or closed source software must first
purchase a development license from Trolltech.
"I am very pleased to see that Qt is now available under the GPL,"
said Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation.
"This is a big win for free software and a great gift from Trolltech
to the community."
"The release of Qt 2.2 under the GPL license will reinforce our
commitment to the open source and free software movement," said Eirik
Eng, President of Trolltech. "The GPL and QPL are similar, both having
the intent of encouraging development of free software. We have many
users who enjoy using Qt under the QPL license because they can choose
the open source licensing they use, such as the BSD and Artistic
licenses, but there has also been a demand for a GPL license. We have
now provided our users a choice."
Open-source industry leaders also applaud the decision by Trolltech.
"We have always been impressed by Trolltech's commitment to open
source," said Ransom Love, President and CEO of Caldera Systems, Inc.
(Nasdaq: CALD). "This move will make it even more desirable to choose
Qt for open source projects."
"We are delighted to see Qt licensed under the GPL," said Bob Young,
Chairman of Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT). "After this bold move from
Trolltech, free software projects can now use Qt without any licensing
concerns."
"Debian is excited to see Trolltech take this step," said Wichert
Akkerman, leader of the Debian project. "This will encourage the
acceptance of Qt as a building block for free software."
The K Desktop Environment (KDE), one of the largest open source
projects based on voluntary work from all over the world, will benefit
greatly from the new licensing. In the past, KDE has received some
criticism for choosing Qt as its basis. "While Qt was without a doubt
the best technical choice, some members of the free software community
didn't agree with Qt's licensing," explains Matthias Ettrich, founder
of the KDE project and Trolltech employee. "Thanks to Trolltech's new
licensing scheme, the upcoming KDE-2.0 will receive full acceptance
throughout the community."
For full details on GPL licensing, see www.gnu.org. For more
information on QPL licensing, see www.trolltech.com/qpl/.
For further information about Qt Free Edition, see the FAQ.
About Trolltech
Trolltech provides high quality software components that enable
customers to develop efficient, maintainable commercial-grade
software. The flagship product, Qt offers a cross-platform graphical
user interface toolkit that is a fully object-oriented and easily
extensible C++ application framework that enables rapid building of
state-of-the-art GUI applications. Qt has formed the basis of many
successful commercial applications worldwide, as well as being the
basis of the KDE desktop environment. Trolltech is headquartered in
Oslo, Norway, with offices in Brisbane, Australia, and Santa Clara,
California.
[Trolltech Announcements]
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