Nokia Buys Trolltech 311
egil writes "Trolltech announced this morning (CET) that they have accepted a bid from Nokia to buy the entire company. The bid was for 16 NOK per share, which values the company at an equivalent of approximately 150 million USD. The stock currently trades at 15.70 on the Oslo stack exchange, up from around 10 on Friday. The offer has already been accepted by the Trolltech BOD."
Just prooves - your data is worth more ... (Score:5, Insightful)
TrollTech: $150 million
MySQL: 1 BILLION!
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GTK: ?
Re:Just prooves - your data is worth more ... (Score:5, Funny)
Priceless. There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's...aww heck, you know.
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NOK also happens to be Nokia's stock ticker on Nasdaq, I'm sure someone can make a joke about that.
Re:NOK is Norwegian Kroner (Score:5, Informative)
KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Interesting)
I assume that means as long as Nokia continues to develop Qt in the same manner (keeping Qt Free available for KDE), then the agreement doesn't apply.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Interesting)
I assume that means as long as Nokia continues to develop Qt in the same manner (keeping Qt Free available for KDE), then the agreement doesn't apply.
I don't see Nokia as interested in the Linux desktop, so I presume that part of Trolltech's work will not continue exactly as before; why pay the salaries of several KDE developers, for example - not sure Nokia will see the point in that. I don't predict immediate firings, though, but if I was one of them I wouldn't count on long-term job security. What I do see Nokia as wanting from Trolltech is everything related to mobile devices, Qtopia, all that stuff. So overall Qt may continue to be developed, but I'm not sure its focus won't move to one that is less useful for KDE.
Of course, this risk with KDE basing itself on Qt was obvious all the time due to the licensing model there. It is probably part of the reason why all major distros have moved to GNOME.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Informative)
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I don't see Nokia as interested in the Linux desktop
Are you kidding. Why not go and take a quick search on Nokia Internet Tablets such as the 700/N800/N810 and you'll see they are very active in linux development. Also check out Maemo.org, which is developed by Nokia and is debian based. You might say that is specialized and not the "desktop" but it is very end user and it would be in Nokia's best interest to keep the development rolling.
Regarding the tablets and Maemo, note that these are GTK-based projects, so I'm not sure they are related to the purchase of Trolltech - there is no direct benefit, Trolltech and Maemo are orthogonal (will Nokia scrap Maemo? I doubt it). No, it seems far likelier that the purchase has all to do with mobile devices, phones in particular, an area Trolltech was working very much on getting into with their Qtopia platform, etc. Given who Nokia is, I think we can bet that mobile devices are the basis here.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Interesting)
It's nice to have GTK and all, but look at QT4, it has much more advanced features. KDE3.5 already has a smaller memory footprint than Gnome, thanks to QT4 KDE4 will have an even smaller footprint.
There were the GreenPhone. Also, there's already a Windows Mobile port of QT4, proving that it's well suited for embedded devices. And QT4 has Java bindings, witch is widely used on cellphone development as it is sandboxed.
Pehaps Nokia is looking into replacing Symbian with a Linux stack? Pehaps they found out GTK lacking? Pehaps they fell the need to be able to control more directly the development of their toolkit of choice?
Time will tell.
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At any rate, back to using the parent's definition, I st
Wireless in five years (Score:5, Interesting)
While I understand your arguments it would now be a relatively easy way for Nokia to sneakin to that business. Before this buyout it would have been "impossible".
Don't forget that the margins of the mobile phone industry may be diminishing and that the distinction between a mobile phone and a laptop is blurred more and more. Nokia is spreading its risks. Who knows what a laptop's wireless connection will look like in five years. I don't, but I guess Nokia now is better prepared to not only know, but also to adapt and dictate.
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KDE is important for Trolltech and Qt (Score:5, Insightful)
You're missing an important detail here. KDE is important for Trolltech and the continued development of Qt. The CEO of Trolltech explained a few weeks ago in fact that Trolltech became a successful company because of KDE, not despite KDE.
Trolltech profits from the tons of feedback and publicity they get through KDE. In their first years they didn't have to do marketing at all! Qt has credibility in the commercial world because a complete desktop environment is built upon it. New Qt features or API's are pushed to their limits due to their immense use by KDE. This improves the overall quality of Qt, ability to reach enterprise customers, and we're back to square 1.
Destroying that upward spiral would hurt Qt development. Trolltech knows this, and so does Nokia.
* KDE also benefits from the relation with Trolltech, since they get an enterprise-quality toolkit in return. Trolltech also does the boring stuff which is typical for toolkit development (they can pay people to work on it!), and sponsors some KDE core-developers full-time.
Re:KDE is important for Trolltech and Qt (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:KDE is important for Trolltech and Qt (Score:5, Interesting)
Any company that does this is one to be feared.
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I thought they got a good-quality toolkit.. this sounds awful.
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Just incorrect (Score:3, Informative)
PCLinuxOS - pretty much the opposite of Ubuntu. They release KDE primarily, and then do a Gnome version seperately.
Ubuntu - Again, the opposite, but they do both.
openSUSE - KDE predominately.
Fedora - Again, supports both. Fedora 9 will use KDE 4.
Mint - Basically Ubuntu, but they release for both.
Sabayon - KDE by default, and all the theming is for KDE.
Mandriva - KDE primarily.
You can go down the list, but you end up getting small distros that either ship with neither by def
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You also suggest there are only 3 major distros which is also pretty short sighted. Mandriva isn't a major distro? What a
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I've been waiting for *someone* to buy TrollTech.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Nokia doesn't make their money licensing software, and I don't think they want to change that now. TrollTech was relatively cheap, because there wasn't a really lucrative market for their commercial licenses. TT had to stick with the dual-license model, because they had no other revenue stream. Nokia is a hardware manufacturer, and I'd think running their hardware on a mainstream software platform would be important to them. Going LGPL would go a long way toward accomplishing that.
Unless Nokia fears their competitors having equal access to the same software platform, a move to the LGPL would be all to the upside. And if they do fear that, then they could fork the Qtopia phone platform and keep that GPL. Or even drop the GPL version and go completely commercial on that. But these days, smart phones need a developer-friendly platform every bit as much as desktop systems do. QT would have some performance advantages over Google's Java-based phone platform. And Nokia, as the first mover and primary maintainer of the platform, ought to be able to leverage that into a huge lead.
That's if they make the switch to LGPL. And if they don't? They'll have a great phone platform, but less open to 3rd party developers. If they think, based on that, they can win a competitive battle for setting smart phone standards with Google and Microsoft, go for it. But I don't think they can. They're smart. They understand why Linux has all the buzz , BSD does not, and OS/2 is gone. GPL for apps, LGPL for libraries. It's scary to a commercial enterprise, but it really works - at least better than anything else (except, maybe, having a monopoly on desktop operating systems...).
Re:I've been waiting for *someone* to buy TrollTec (Score:5, Interesting)
In retrospect, I consider Qt one of the two biggest 'misses' in open-source, the other being OpenSolaris. If Trolltech had 'gotten it' in time, GNOME wouldn't exist, and Qt/KDE would dominate the Linux desktop completely, a great vantage point from which to consider other markets. Likewise, if Sun had 'gotten it' way back then, OpenSolaris would be what Linux is today, Linux wouldn't exist, and Sun would be making a fortune. Yes, all of this is in retrospect, but the two stories are interesting, I think. And both revolve around fears of 'going all the way' with an open-source business model. Problem is, waiting too long is even worse. Maybe Nokia will get it right?
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It's possible that Sun could have prevented Linux from being a success, and perhaps even from being started at all. I believe that corporate politics would have ruined it -- very few companies are willing to let their product go enough that it transcends them. Look at the free software that came out of companies: MySQL, OpenOffice.org, Asterisk, QT. They're still pretty much controlled by those companies. Firefox is an excepti
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Of course, this risk with KDE basing itself on Qt was obvious all the time due to the licensing model there. It is probably part of the reason why all major distros have moved to GNOME.
nonsense... openSuse and Mandriva are more like KDE-distros, Debian isn't gnome based either. KDE is more popular than gnome in Europe for instance...
The default desktop on Red Hat(/Fedora), SUSE [novell.com] and Ubuntu is GNOME. I don't think Mandriva is doing so well these days as to be in the same list. As for Debian, it's an amazing distro, but not a desktop-focused one (however, yes, it has no default).
In summary, yes, GNOME is the default on all major distros, as I read the map. Perhaps in some geographical areas Mandriva is successful, that's true, but overall the top three are pretty much Red Hat, SUSE and Ubuntu these days.
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Trolltech then nicely decided to agree to let people use the GPL3 - but they didn't have to. And when the GPL4 comes along, we'll have to hope that Nokia decides to allow it.
Do they have a track record of "doing the wrong thing" that they've only deviated from a time or two? Why assume it's going to get much worse now?
When you're Red Hat, you don't want to build your OS in a way that lets another corporation control a critical aspect of it.
Kind of like how they're no longer using the GPLv2-only Linux kernel. Gotcha.
I never have understood why QT is always held to a different standard than other software. Even though it's GPLv2 + GPLv3 + closed if you wanna pay for it, that just doesn't please some people.
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It is probably part of the reason why all major distros have moved to GNOME.
Only ONE major distro that standardizes on GNOME, and that's the distro that helps fund it. All of the Ubuntus are really just one distro, so they're not standardized on anything. All the other major distros (SuSE, Mandriva, Debian, etc.) either standardize on KDE or leave the choice up to the user during install.
Red Hat is standardized on GNOME. Ubuntu has GNOME as the default, and if you test Ubuntu vs Kubuntu, you can see that the latter is far less polished; also, note how the next release will be LTS only for GNOME (not KDE, not Xfce) - GNOME is the top priority. Novell's enterprise offerings are all standardized on GNOME; openSUSE defaults to GNOME, and most development focuses on GNOME, but KDE is also an option.
That leaves Mandriva and Debian in your list. Debian isn't really a 'desktop distro', so it is
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:4, Insightful)
In my experience, when company buys another company, they always promise that everything will stay the same... and they almost always renege on that statement 6~12 months after the acquisition.
*shrug* it's just one of those things that people/companies say to ease friction during a transition, and not because they really mean it.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Insightful)
One does not buy a toolkit company to build one application. Nokia could easily already "create multiplatform PC software for synching their phones to Any OS(TM)". Qt is already plenty good enough to do this and there are even perfectly reasonable alternatives.
Nokia are buying Trolltech for Qtopia, the mobile phone platform, which happens to be their core business. Therefore it is completely reasonable to question their commitment to desktop Qt, which at the moment has little to do with their core business.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Informative)
Do you not know what Nokia does?
They make networking gear, computer equipment and yes, DO write software along with their phone thing.
You better learn about the company you think only makes cellphones.
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I think this move is a response to Apple's success in entering the market. Nokia still has the better hardware and value for money, but Apple's sleek design and marketing prowess are p
Apple - No Challenge (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, but that's just not true. In the US Apple sold a lot of iPhones, but Nokia is a dominant world leader in cellphones and especially cell networks (Nokia-Siemens). The US is a weird and rather small market compared with the rest of the world. Europe and Asia is where the real action is, as you may well know. And real smartphones from the likes of Nokia have been here a lot longer than the iPhone. Apple has done just fine [in the US], but it has in no way managed to challenge Nokia for the real markets.
Oh, and I don't have anything against Apple. I'm European and I just ordered my iPhone from the US because I like the look and features. It will go nicely with my Macs.
However the iPhone will be my #3 phone as I change phones depending on my needs. I have a real smartphone in the SonyEricsson P1, a creditcard sized Samsung for going out and now the iPhone for entertainment.
Easy, they'll just bring the services to you over the Internet using free, open standards. SyncML is certainly interesting in that regard. I sync my phones from *my phone* using Zyb.com and it stores the information on the Internet. iCal syncs my calendar back from a feed.
And why focus on the desktop OS anyway? Today files are more or less independent of the OS it was created on if you want to. Webservices, my friend, is the future. And Nokia already has good sync software for their phones. And on the Mac iSync does a good job of communicating with many phones. I also believe Nokias sync well with Linux if you want to.
P.S. And Windows Mobile is not doing that well in Europe either. We like phones that work, go Symbian.
Nokia does develop software and lots of it (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nokia does develop software and lots of it (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Nokia does develop software and lots of it (Score:5, Informative)
After the vendor fucks it up then they try to fix it, usually with not-so-good results.
Disclaimer:
I work for the company.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, they do [nokia.com]. And, it's Eclipse and CDT based, so I would say that anyone that claims Nokia is not a friend of open source is mistaken. I am a committer on CDT, and I can vouch for the fact that the Nokia folks that work on Carbide have been making some significant contributions to CDT... enough that they have a committer on the project as well.
And let's not forget that they own a controlling interest in Symbian, who does make OSes.
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Oh? *looks at his IPSO firewalls and scratches head*
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They're also in the IDE business [slashdot.org], since they joined the Eclipse foundation, and have been pumping code into the C/C++ components, so people can use them to work on extensions for their own phones.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Informative)
Seems like they really want to give the impression they don't intend to screw anyone over. Time will tell.
Re:KDE Qt Free Foundation (Score:5, Interesting)
company. It forces a fork of licensing, etc. making a BSD licensed version possible at the KDE Qt Free Foundation's
discretion under those circumstances. At that point you'd have a version of Qt that was GPLed, BSD, and the completely
closed license version that the new owners had.
In this case, I doubt that Nokia would take it private- they know what Open Source is and seem to have few issues
with it in general. I'm not quite sure why they're picking Trolltech and Qt up, to be honest, considering how
well Maemo and Hildon works on things like their N770/N800/N810, but perhaps they're picking them up because they
want another option choice on the UI and applications suite front.
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It only kicks in if the new owners choose to take Qt private or do something like dissolve the now new division of their company
Or if they simply stop releasing new versions. The agreement specifies that one of the conditions under which the foundation may invoke the license change is if 12 months has elapsed since Trolltech has released an "Important Release".
Another way it can happen is if the Foundation's board unanimously decides to invoke the license change. I'm not sure if Trolltech (now Nokia) has a seat on the board that would allow them to prevent this, though.
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It's a nice gesture, but if Nokia wanted to be evil (though all recent signs show that they won't) they could lock it up in court for years and years. If Nokia lets Qt stagnate, the easier option for the KDE people would be to just fork the GPL codebase.
Personally I see the opposi
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Maybe they figured it would work out cheaper to do that than paying per-seat Qt commercial license fees for their 14,000 software developers somebody mentioned.
(Seriously though, I doubt that played more than a small part in the decision. Acquisition is something big companies do to keep up the appearance of growth. Perhaps they also wanted to have more influence on the future direction of Trolltech's products.)
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The Internet Tablet n810 is based on Linux and GTK+, which is where Maemo is running.
Lovely (Score:5, Funny)
Can't wait.
Re:Lovely (Score:5, Interesting)
It was a shock to find out, while being in an auditorium, listening to a beautiful classic guitar concert, and suddenly a phone rang from the guitar... or so it seemed.
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Smart move! (Score:5, Insightful)
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maybe i heard wrong, as its something i'd really like to look at - especially if pyqt will soon work on the s60 due to this move, gotta be better than that java rubbish.
Re:Smart move! (Score:4, Interesting)
Looks pretty active, release wise. I too am interested in looking at this, pretty excited to see this news if I must be honest.
Damn (Score:5, Funny)
Qtopia? (Score:4, Interesting)
If Nokia switches to full-linux-ahead with it, it would really be sweet, although we'd see a nice internal fight between the existing GTK stack and the new qt one
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Perspectives on the deal... (Score:5, Informative)
Trolltech Acquisition to Position Nokia in Featurephone Space
(What's "Featurephone Space"?)
Helsinki shares drop midday, led by Nokia
(Ahh, so Nokia stock takes a hit, eh?)
Nokia Dishes Out $153 Million for Trolltech
(We know how much, exactly)
What other perspectives on the deal are you finding?
A Few Interesting Things (Score:5, Informative)
Having said all of the above, I can't help but remain a bit concerned about this turn of events. I was under the impression that Nokia have a rather tarnished reputation in the eyes of the Free Software world, since they seem to be pro-patents for software and there was that opposition from them concerning Ogg Vorbis as a web standard or something. Things like this make me worry. On the other hand, it seems like there is still a large gap between the cultures of proprietary software and free software, and maybe Nokia will gain a more balanced standpoint by getting involved with GPL projects like Qt. Ah well, I suppose we'll have to see how things turn out, but I don't really think a project the size of KDE can be killed so easily as this.
Some other people have remarked that it's interesting that Nokia should acquire Qt, seeing as how they use GTK in a few of their products. It seems fine to me though - I reckon heterogeny is a pretty big part of what Free Software is all about.
commercial licenses are the issue (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not the main issue. Qt already is under the GPL, so whatever Nokia does or doesn't do won't affect KDE.
The big question is what Nokia will do for commercial developers.
I think Nokia's best bet is to re-release the desktop edition of Qt under a BSD-style license right away. Nokia isn't going to make much money from licensing anyway, and a BSD release could make Qt much more popular as a toolkit for everybody.
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Commercial users can get screwed if Nokia stops development on Qt. If they continue at current pace or actually fix most of the bugs in their BTS, the better for commercial users. Heck, since Nokia is already using Qt, they are a commercial user an
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good move (Score:3, Insightful)
So what happens to Maemo (Score:5, Insightful)
And how will Nokia's competitors that currently use Qt for their mobile products take this?
Re:So what happens to Maemo (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So what happens to Maemo (Score:5, Funny)
"Up the ass", I guess.
Underlying Implications (Score:5, Interesting)
The only obvious reason I can see for this decision is that Nokia's Mobile OS technology has been gradually falling behind for a number of years. Buying Trolltech gives them all the tech that went into the Zaurus devices and Trolltech's mobile environment (as seen on the green phone).
I assume that over the next day or two an official announcement will be made about Nokia's intentions for the Qt licensing. In the mean time we all have to sit on our hands and anticipate a fork. On one hand this is a bit of a slap in the face to the Gnome/GTK teams that seems to imply Qt was the superior technology. On the other hand it also justifies Gnome's existence as a project to begin with, there have always been concerns that Trolltech would take it's ball and go home. KDE is extremely dependent on paid developers at Trolltech for much of the code that is written, it will also be interesting to see if Nokia ends up becoming a major sponsor to both projects. Only time will tell.
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It's six of one, half dozen of another on GTK+ versus Qt.
There's not really a slap in the face when you think about it. Qtopia presents an entire environment
for making mobile phones. Maemo presents a more sophisticated environment for making more than
capable smart phones and network-centric appliance devices. While Qtopia's capable of the other,
it's not quite the same beast as what they came up with for themselves for that purpose- and Qtopia
makes some good sense on things like the average p
Re:Underlying Implications (Score:4, Interesting)
I find that hard to believe considering the rate at which Gnome is including Microsoft's tech.
Nokia moving to the desktop? (Score:4, Insightful)
source [allaboutsymbian.com]
Nokia more involved than I thought (Score:3, Interesting)
Symbian GNOME? (Score:2)
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How will Symbian react? Will they switch to using GNOME so they have parity? I'd doubt they'd adopt Qt with one of their customers controlling its license back to them. Does this move mean Symbian will always use its own proprietary GUI SW?
I am not sure I understood your post. But if I did, then you are missing the information that Nokia owns 48% of Symbian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS [wikipedia.org]
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Greephone (Score:3, Interesting)
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commercial desktop users? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm also not sure this acquisition makes sense from a mobile perspective. Nokia needs a better UI strategy than they have right now, but Qt isn't really the top choice in that space either. This purchase really strikes me as one company with an aging platform buying another company with an aging platform.
Well, I guess we'll know how things turn out when the dust settles.
Audiocasts on the topic (Score:2)
Dear Nokia... (Score:2)
finally get the long rumored version of SWT for QT - that IBM is supposedly sitting on internally - released to the world.
the KKKPc (Score:2, Interesting)
The laptop segment is starting to see a wide range of ultr-portable low-cost PC's like the eeePC and the Everex Cloudbook. These run Linux with a lightweight GUI. Maybe Nokia is viewing this as the future of the ultramobile laptop segment and thinks it needs to have a foothold in that. Paying $150 milli
Good News (Score:5, Interesting)
Your fear is unwarranted. My take on this: Nokia is a getting a little leary of MS gaining increasing control at Novell with their hand up Miguel.
Besides, basing your products on GTK is hard, there I said it.
QT is a programmer's dream to work with. Fully documented, Open Source, (or Closed if your PHB is twitchy) Cross compatible, and simple. Got a problem a shout out to the trolls usually clears it up. Licensor or not.
Nokia makes hardware and wants to control their own destiny. Makes perfect business sense, but so does keeping the good will of the community. Recent foibles with the n700 taught them that.
I use only KDE, I develop Desktop Applications and Embedded Devices using QT. It would be fair to call me a fanboy of the Trolls. I also have an unhealthy desire to own a n810, n700, and n800. The only thing holding me back was that I hate the GTK based Maemo toolkit. Recently KDE was ported, and with this development is making it difficult for me to contain the copious amounts drool.
Get ready for Layoffs (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless there is money to be made by supporting QT for KDE, don't count on Nokia being as friendly toward the Open Source Community as Trolltech was.
Nokia has recently been implicated in accepting almost 90 Million Euro's in subsidies from Germany to operate an R&D and Production facility on Bochum, Germany. The subsidy contract expired in the end of last year, and guess what? Nokia recently announced they are closing shop in Germany, putting almost 3,000 workers out of a job (many of whom have been with the company over 20 years) and moving production to Romania where they claim production labor costs are 10x lower than in Germany. The funny thing is, the plant in Germany was profitable. And furthermore, production labor costs only account for less than 2% of Nokia's total costs. There are calls for a Nokia Boycott [google.com] in Germany, which just happens to be Nokia's largest market in the EU.
Now if Nokia would screw with their largest market in the EU to save less than 2% in costs, do you really think that they will devote resources or Money to the Open Source Community by continuing development of the OSE of QT? All they need to do to prevent Qt from reverting to a BSD license is to keep things on a low burner, possibly throwing a part time developer on the project. This is what they have done with the Internet Tablet Software 2007 for the Nokia 770 Linux device. Its in a state of slow development because there is only one part time developer working on it.
You have very one sided view (Score:4, Insightful)
I have to say that you have a very one sided view both about both the situation in Bochum and Nokia as corporation.
Here in Finland we have been little staggered about recent events in there, or to say it straight, about the reaction the closure of Bochum plant has made in general population and also in politicians. It seems so strange that a closure of a small plant, with only 2000 employees, has generated so big reaction, after all there are justifiable reasons for the plant closure: employees cost very much compared to developing countries and in Bochum Nokia couldn't get all their supplier near them like they will have in Nokia Village in Romania.
The reaction seems just so strange when you remember that German companies have too moved lots of manufacturing jobs from Germany, and Siemens was driven from the mobile phone markets all together because they weren't cost effective. It's also strange that people forget that by closing the plant in Bochum, opening one in Romania, they employ themselves 4000 romanians. It should also be noted that atleast they are keeping the jobs in Europe and not shipping them to China. Also in larger context by keeping themselves cost effective they make sure that in future there will be European mobile phone companies, and that they won't die because of ultra low cost Chinese firms.
Yes, it's sad that people will lost their jobs, but then again, it's business as usual, nobody has a job for life. It should also be noted that it was just a matter of time when Bochum plant was to be closed, as according to notable Finnish banker Björn Wahlroos, that Nokia management would have closed the plant in 1992 if they could have afforded it: they couldn't as in Germany closing plant of decreasing work force is very expensive.
Also about Nokia and Trolltech. Nokia has its main R&D functions and personnel in Europe, they haven't outsourced or shipped their jobs away, as those jobs are best done in here not in India or China. Of course they have R&D in India and China, but that's not away from Europe as they have extended their activities. Same too will happen with Trolltech, Nokia bought them to increase value, and in case of Trolltech that means more R&D, more activities and extensions. I believe that only good will happen because of this acquisition. If the future is what the presentation held by Nokia is correct, then the community and people using Qt will benefit enormously as with same toolkit they can make applications not just to Linux, Windows and Mac OSX, but to S60, S40 and other platforms that are being developed.
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if you read the letter to the open source community, you would see that Nokia is applying to become a patron of KDE.
Parent post is GMAA Final Measure (Score:5, Informative)
Gee, I haven't seen that one in ages.
Last time was from zoy.org.
Warning - if you're a windows user, don't click on it - it steals your browser's clipboard contents.
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Licensing Issues for the Future (Score:3, Interesting)
In case anyone can feel the panic setting in while thoughts of closed source qt libraries swirl around their heads it may be as well to remind people that Troll Tech and KDE have this all worked out nicely already.
The KDE Foundation takes the code if qt is ever released closed. Not sure if it covers a buy out situation but I'm pretty sure it does.
First, Qt is already released closed-source: it has several licenses, one of which is closed, others of which are GPL2, GPL3. But I presume you meant that they stop the FOSS releases. Then yes, you are essentially correct: if Qt stops being released in an (among others) FOSS license, it reverts to being BSD. However, this far from solves the issue. Qt may continue to be released as FOSS, but its development may stagnate, if e.g. Nokia's priorities are more towards mobile devices and less on desktop Linux (
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You might say, "but then the community can fork Qt." Yes, a fork is possible. The fork will then be GPL2/GPL3, which is somewhat problematic, in that in the future we will never be able to write KDE apps in GPL4, should such be released (and I presume that Microsoft's attacks on FOSS will necessitate a GPL4 eventually, just as Microsoft's deal with Novell necessitated certain clauses in the GPL3).
In 1991 the FSF was a rag-tag bunch of idealists that wrote a very non-legalese license based almost solely on US law and defintions, had some very strict conditions that make it incompatible with other OSS licenses, was not designed to withstand a malicious reading and failed to explicitly say many things yet it lasted some 15 years and is still very valid also for new projects.
The GPLv3 is probably the most well reviewed license in history. It has some new features that are controversial but it's pretty
KDE is not the problem, commercial use is (Score:2)
The big question is what happens to commercial users. For example, Nokia might stop Mac support. Or they might make the desktop versions really buggy. Or they might jack up licensing fees. In that case, it's the commercial developers that are in trouble because they can't get another commercial version of Qt from anybody. Right now, we don't know what Nokia is going to do. But they don't have much
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There are many patents covering GPL code, all of them with proper licenses that allow GPL code to use them freely and perpetually. These patents just protect the patents from being used in competing closed software products the patent holder did not intend.
Whether or not that is a good thing is an entirely different issue.
Re: (Score:2)
The main reason RedHat and Ubuntu don't use QT/KDE is that QT is GPL only.. not LGPL like GTK. That means no binding to non-free programs unless you pay up. Actually, RMS should love them for that choice because it forces software to be open or closed... a developer can't flip-flop as easily. The distros wanting to get the most support don't like it because
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