Nearly exactly 5 years ago, I wrote my first article about Using Qt 5.6 and Later under LGPL. The trigger then was the switch from LGPLv2.1 to LGPLv3 with Qt 5.6. The trigger now is the switch from Qt 5 to Qt 6. All the Qt modules under LGPLv3 5 years ago are still available...
Tag: LGPL
FOSS Qt Releases Delayed by up to 12 Months?
On 8 April 2020, Olaf Schmidt-Wischhöfer wrote in an email to the KDE community (emphasis mine): […] last week, [The Qt Company] suddenly informed both the KDE e.V. board and the KDE Free QT Foundation that the economic outlook caused by the Corona virus puts more pressure on them to increase short-term revenue. As a...
Less Love for FOSS Qt Users
From Qt 5.15, The Qt Company make their offering a bit more inconvenient for FOSS users. They announced three changes: A Qt account is mandatory to download binary Qt packages. The offline installer is not available to FOSS users any more. LTS (long-term support) releases are not available to FOSS users, once the next minor...
Burkhard on Qt Embedded Systems: No. 1
Welcome to episode 1 of my newsletter Burkhard on Qt Embedded Systems. My resolution for 2020 is to write this newsletter monthly – for a long long time. If you want to receive my newsletter by email at the end of each month, fill out the subscription form in the sidebar right (on mobile devices,...
Safe-Guarding the (L)GPL Future of Qt
The little known KDE Free Qt Foundation makes sure that Qt stays free and open-source. It guarantees that all Qt modules currently licensed under LGPLv3 must continue to be available under LGPLv3 in the future. This covers all modules from Qt Essentials and many add-on modules. If The Qt Company discontinued the FOSS version of...
Qt Quick 2D Renderer: Under LGPLv3 since Qt 5.8
I know that this is pretty old news. Unfortunately, it is not very well known. I have been asked half a dozen times over the last two months, whether the QML software renderer – officially known as the Qt Quick 2D renderer – is available under LGPLv3. Nobody belives me, when I answer with a...
Using Qt under LGPLv3
At Qt Day 2019 in Florence, Italy, I gave a talk Using Qt under LGPLv3. In the first part The obligations of Qt LGPLv3: made understandable, I explain in detail, how you must provide the source code, the license texts, the copyright notices, any modification notices and the installation information. You don’t have to provide...
Seminar “Open-Source Management in Software Supply Chains”
On 20 November 2018, the law firm Bird & Bird hosted a seminar about “Open-Source Management in Software Supply Chains – Effective and Consistent License Compliance” in their Frankfurt office. The seminar was organised by Miriam Ballhausen, who is Bird & Bird’s specialist in open-source Licensing. The seminar offered the opportunity to meet two of...
Using Qt 5.6 and Later under LGPL
Up to Qt 5.3, things were pretty simple. Most modules were under LGPLv2.1 with the exception of some commercial modules. Starting with Qt 5.4, new Qt modules were published under LGPLv3 and old modules additionally under LGPLv3. With Qt 5.6, we now have quite a patchwork of modules under different licenses. Qt 5.7 will drop...