Good news for KDE: Trolltech releases Qt under GPL

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Sep. 04, 2000

Trolltech has just announced that the upcoming version of Qt/Unix 2.2 has a new license option: the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL option will be added to Trolltech's customary "Q Public License" (QPL), which had not been fully accepted by the open source community. Additionally, as in the past, Trolltech will also sell non-GPL Qt licenses to companies who want to create proprietary (closed source) software based on Qt.

One happy beneficiary of Qt's new GPL license is KDE, the most popular Linux desktop environment, which is currently vying with GNOME to be the preferred environment for mainstream Linux developments. KDE, an open source project itself, has occasionally been shunned by open source advocates due to its dependence on the non-GPL Qt.

Seeing the GPL issue disappear was good news to Matthias Ettrich, KDE project founder and Trolltech employee. "While Qt was, without doubt, the best technical choice, some members of the free software community didn't agree with Qt's licensing," observed Ettrich. "Thanks to the new licensing scheme, the upcoming KDE-2.0 will receive full acceptance throughout the community."

Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation, echoed that sentiment. "I am very pleased to see that Qt is now available under the GPL," said Stallman. "This is a big win for free software and a great gift from Trolltech to the community."

Open-source industry leaders also applauded the decision by Trolltech . . .

"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."

For details on the GNU Public License (GPL), see www.gnu.org. For information on Trolltech's QPL license, see www.trolltech.com/qpl.

Related stories:
    Stallman on Qt's licensing and its implications to KDE
    Trolltech clarification of decision to add GPL to option to Qt
    KDE Core Team responds to GNOME hoopla

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