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 . . .

Ransom Love, President and CEO of Caldera: “We have always been impressed by Trolltech's commitment to open source. This move will make it even more desirable to choose Qt for open source projects.”

Bob Young, Chairman of Red Hat: “We are delighted to see Qt licensed under the GPL. After this bold move from Trolltech, free software projects can now use Qt without any licensing concerns.”

Wichert Akkerman, leader of the Debian project: “Debian is excited to see Trolltech take this step. This will encourage the acceptance of Qt as a building block for free software.”

“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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