[GLLUG] Nokia Buys Trolltech

[Charles Ulrich]

On Jan 30, 2008 8:09 AM, Eduardo Cesconetto <eduardo at cesconetto.com> wrote:
> errr...
> 1- community develops something cool open-source
> 2- giant buys open-source company
> 3- community has to pay for it's own code...
>
> didn't I hear that before?
>
> ha! yes I did! Sun bought MySQL...

>From Wikipedia:

"Qt is available under a dual license, the GPL v2 or v3 with special
exception[7] and a proprietary commercial license on all supported
platforms."

and

"MySQL AB makes MySQL Server available as free software under the GNU
General Public License (GPL), but they also offer the MySQL Enterprise
subscription offering for business users and dual-license it under
traditional proprietary licensing arrangements for cases where the
intended use is incompatible with the GPL."

So both products have dual-licensing so that the company can gain the
benefits of open source while making money at it. The nice thing about
the GPL is that you can't decide to lock up the code after it's been
released as GPL. If either Sun or Nokia tried to make Qt or MySQL
proprietary only, the community can fork the code and continue work on
the latest-released GPLed versions and keep the software free in
perpetuity. Besides, Nokia has always been very friendly to open
source (N770, N800, N810) and Sun is finally starting to see the
light. (Haw!)

Charles