Original BeOS Developer Now at Trolltech 255
UltimaGuy writes "Benoit Schillings, co-creator of the Be operating system and former CTO of Openwave, has been appointed to the newly created position of chief technology officer (CTO) at Trolltech. In the meantime, Trolltech has also joined the new mobile OSDL initiative."
Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft, Borland, etc. usually have an entry level version of most of their programming products (with which you can still write proprietary code) that is less than my car payment. Entry level on QT is more than my mortgage.
Yes, they support open source, but unless you're an open source coder or a well-funded enterprise coder, they basically tell you to F off. I don't like that and it detracts from any excitement I could have about these announcements.
- Greg
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not exactly. (Score:3, Informative)
IANAL, this isn't legal advice, etc....
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:4, Insightful)
It's their software, right? They have the right to make money off of their own work, right? And license it however they choose?
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone considering Qt needs to weigh the costs against the benefit of using it, and proceed accordingly. For my particular requirements, Qt is simply too expensive to consider, and since I can't use it professionally, any OSS stuff I happen to release will pretty much be guaranteed to be non-Qt as well. I doubt this will make the slightest difference to anyone but myself, but I can't imagine I'm the only developer in the same situation.
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
just like you enumerate their right to sell it at any price point they want.
so what exactly are you trying to say, then?
that he should shut up and accept it?
complaining is a god given right (or nature given if you're into that instead).
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
No, the biggest problem is that Troll Tech is using open source licensing as a gimmick to push a commercial piece of software at an inflated price point. Without the open source marketing, Qt wouldn't have a prayer in the free market because it's overpriced for what it does.
And it is a commercial software project: it is run like one, it is sold under a commercial license, and Troll Tech retains all the rights.
It's their s
I disagree... (Score:2)
Re:I disagree... (Score:3, Insightful)
Furthermore, if I'm going to pay $1800/developer, then I'm going to pay tha
All but GTK+ (Score:2)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
Remember, you don't have to accept the GPL to use their code, you have to accept it when you distribute though.
Anybody care to clarify Trolltechs thinking here?
Re:license issues (Score:2, Informative)
Sure it does. It just doesn't allow you to distribute that code. You can sit down, write all the programs you'd like with the free version, test it out yourself, then switch to the commercial version when it's time to release.
Re:license issues (Score:5, Informative)
Sure it does. It just doesn't allow you to distribute that code. You can sit down, write all the programs you'd like with the free version, test it out yourself, then switch to the commercial version when it's time to release.
This is actually *NOT* the case. As per the QT license, you must BUY the licence before you start coding the application.
Refer to the license FAQ: http://www.trolltech.com/developer/faqs/index.htm
"Can we use the Open Source Edition while developing our non-opensource application and then purchase commercial licenses when we start to sell it?
No. Our commercial license agreements only apply to software that was developed with Qt under the commercial license agreement. They do not apply to code that was developed with the Qt Open Source Edition prior to the agreement. Any software developed with Qt without a commercial license agreement must be released as Open Source software."
Re:license issues (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah. (Score:2)
Re:license issues (Score:2)
As per the QT license, you must BUY the licence before you start coding the application.
Does playing around with a toolkit to learn how it works count as writing the application these days?
Re:license issues (Score:2)
Am happy to fork out the $1800 as the toolkit itself is going to save me thousands of dollars in development work I that I don't have to do...
Re:license issues (Score:3, Interesting)
To be blunt: If you're writing code you intend to release under a proprietary license, you need to buy the proprietary license. Of course, that's exactly what Trolltech just told you, but it didn't seem that you heard.
Re:license issues (Score:2)
Re:license issues (Score:2)
#include <QApplication>
#include <QPushButton>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
QApplication app(argc, argv);
QPushButton hello("Can anyone guess what license I was coded under?");
hello.resize(300, 30);
Look up ... (Score:2)
Re:license issues (Score:2)
It is OK to develop using the free QT, as long as you do not release anything outside. No beta testing either. Or multiple developers.
As long as it is only in your hands, it is ok to develop and use it. You know, when you are the only one holding the binary and the sources, you are fully complying to the GPL as long as you do not give it to anyone else. The second you giv
Re:license issues (Score:2)
I think the problem in this case is nothing to do with the GPL, and more a feature of the Qt commercial licence, which states that it can't be used for apps that were developed using the open source edition. They're not misinterpreting the GPL, since it is not the licence which introduces this restriction.
Re:license issues (Score:3, Insightful)
No, you can't. You can't "switch" code you developed using the GPL version to the commercial version. It's not against the GPL; it is against the commercial license that TrollTech sells QT under. You can write all the programs you'd like with the free version, but you can never ever use any of that code with the commercial version of QT.
The r
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, I want to contribute to Qt under the GPL, but Troll Tech won't let me.
Contributing to Qt (Score:2)
Borland entry-level license (Score:2)
Gee, what ever happened to the $49.95 Turbo Pascal? Borland, we hardly know you.
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're looking at producing something commercial, then it's a perfectly fine investment.
plenty of other industries and interests have costs similar or much larger than that - and they don't have the same prospect for making the money back as a good commercial application does.
By the way - to get your sea legs under you, there's an evaluation version. You can also talk to Trolltech about your specific situation and your possible options.
Every time a TrollTech article comes up, there's the same whiny troll about the price of the license, well guess what? It's a fucking GOOD thing that you can't afford it, because we don't WANT your crappy $15 shareware anyway.
And god help you if you ever want to be a musician: "waaahhhh, why do guitars cost so much?" "waaaahhhh, why do I have to pay $5,000+ for sequencers, effects and soft-synths?" or alternatively - "wahhhhhh, why does it cost $500 an hour to record in this studio?"
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2, Insightful)
Qt isn't for part time shareware authors.
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:3, Insightful)
Qt isn't for part time shareware authors.
And not for anyone who has made a project, only to then want to go professional. If say BitTorrent had been written using the Qt library, it doesn't matter that he just got $8 million in funding. That code is still ineligible for a commercial version (unless you port it to a different
still overpriced (Score:3, Interesting)
Because it's about $1800 more than Cocoa+XCode, $1800 more than Gtk+ or wxWidgets, or $1000 more than
"wahhhhhh, why does it cost $500 an hour to record in this studio?"
The proper question is "why does it cost $1500 an hour to record in this studi
Seriously? (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe because in some countries it's the yearly wage of said programmer?????? Hint: a high-pay programmer in my country makes circa US$ 10000/yr.
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
WRONG! Please mod parent flamebait.
You're confusing paid versions with proprietary versions. You can make money [gnu.org] selling paid versions of Free and Open Source Software.
QT [trolltech.com] is licenced under the GPL [gnu.org], which is a Free and Open Source Software license. It forces software vendors to share the source code, but does not prohibit vendors from selling binaries.
Anyone (ranging from independent programmers to
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:3, Informative)
It forces software vendors to share the source code, but does not prohibit vendors from selling binaries.
It's actually better than that. It forced the vendor to share the source code to the same parties with which they shared the binaries. In other words if you only have, say, half a dozen very trustworthy clients, or clients who would never even think to ask for the source code, then you're in a fairly good place.
On the other hand, it only takes one client with knowledge of the GPL to redistribute yo
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
In short: what is the "issue" with Qt? the fact that it licensed under the GPL. And why is that a problem? Because it makes it difficult to write proprietary software using Qt (you have to pay TT in order to do so).
Hello, why exactly is that a problem? Since when did free software movement turn from creating great software that is Free, in to something meant to satisfy the whims of pushers of p
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
The issue with Qt is not that it is covered by the GPL, the issue with Qt is that it is covered also by a commercial license. And the problem with that is that it makes it easy to write proprietary software using Qt--all you have to do is fork over some money to Troll Tech. Troll Tech's dual li
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
And that money is used to improve Qt, which in turn helps developers of Free Software since they have a kick ass Free toolkit at their disposal. And isn't it even easier to write proprietary softwa
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
Re:Issues With Trolltech Lower Excitement (Score:2)
There are a lot of pieces of software where the free demo is crippled in some way - in this case it isn't there are just restrictions on how you use it - just like the academic versions of a huge number of different pieces of software.
I see nothing wrong with having to develop all commercial qt software on the commercial version, and I d
I predict (Score:3, Funny)
1) BeOS was a great multimedia OS
2) Trolltech's licencing schemes suck
3) Gnome vs. KDE
Re:I predict (Score:2)
Re:I predict (Score:2, Funny)
What was BeOS really like? (Score:2)
One one hand there is Windows, which sucks monkey's balls when it comes to soft real time like multimedia with respect to issues such as control over task/thread scheduling, granularity of same, and Windows deciding to take siesta's for 10's of ms (we are not talking about any kind of hard guaranteed real time). On the other hand there is Linux, and I suppose there are real-time versions and frame buffer graphics a
Re:What was BeOS really like? (Score:5, Interesting)
As far as soft real time? Back in the day I ran Be on a P2 350 2xx Megs ram. I could easily play 10-20 mp3s at one time with all playing smoothly while I ran several other programs. Sure there was no reason to do that, but it looked cool. Same goes for video. I remember the cool thing at one time was to play 50 or so copies of the Phantom Menace trailor.
You really could run the full system to 100% and still have damn good GUI responce. There's still no system (that I've found) that runs as smooth as Be did in 1998.
The great thing about programming was that the threading was to embedded in the system that you didn't know you where even using it. Take some time to browse the BeBook [beunited.org]. It was a great api.
Re:What was BeOS really like? (Score:2)
You must be kidding. Using fluxbox and mplayer, I can have mplayer fullscreen on one workspace and switch around workspaces including the mplayer one just as fast as if mplayer weren't even running. Alt-tabbing between WMP and other applications on the same machine in Windows is painfully slow. For that matter, I can do the same with Starcraft and WINE.
Re:I predict (Score:2)
You missed the obvious (Score:2)
Re:I predict (Score:2)
no, seriously.
yeah i'll be here all week but what does that have to do with this discussion?
Dear Trolltech (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe.. Goatsetech?
I dunno.
But fire the guy who came up with that name, anyway.
Sincerely,
Common Sense
Re:Dear Trolltech (Score:2)
Re:Dear Trolltech (Score:2)
Re:Dear Trolltech (Score:3, Funny)
It's actually a good name (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Dear Trolltech (Score:3, Funny)
The Zeta community gets smaller and smaller (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The Zeta community gets smaller and smaller (Score:2)
Someone's gotta say it. (Score:2)
Re:Someone's gotta say it. (Score:4, Informative)
Ah, yes, but the original developers of BeOS are still great engineers, so it's newsworthy to hear about their new pursuits. As a former BeOS hacker and an intern at Be in 1997, it's great to see what's happened to the various engineers that I used to work with. Dominic Giampaolo [wikipedia.org] is now at Apple where he is the chief architect behind Spotlight [wikipedia.org] and other cool stuff, and several Be engineers, including myself, are now working at Danger, Inc. [danger.com], the company behind the Hiptop/Sidekick [wikipedia.org] and Hiptop2 [danger.com] smart phones.
I remember Benoit as an über-hacker who wrote something like 50% of the original BeOS single-handedly. It was great to hear about his new job while I'm waiting for KDE 3.5.0 beta 2 to compile on my Gentoo box.
Re:Someone's gotta say it. (Score:2)
Re:The Zeta community gets smaller and smaller (Score:2)
Interesting. Please share your definition of "popular."
Re:The Zeta community gets smaller and smaller (Score:2)
what about ppc (Score:2)
So many initiatives, so little impact (Score:2, Insightful)
These things come and go so fast that it seems to not even be worth the trouble to discuss.
On the other hand, Linux as a mobil
Wow, misread that. (Score:3, Funny)
A question on dual licensing (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
If you want an open source project, go restart
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:3, Informative)
BTW, you'll get that same response from projects like GCC too. They require copyright assignment on all code, and they won't look at a (non-trivial) patch either.
And they have the same reasons.
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
But here's an idea. Suppose Kubuntu starts to sprint ahead of Ubuntu and Mark Shuttleworth says to the GNOME team to pull their socks up and they can't. What's gunna happen? Will they rename Kubuntu to Ubuntu and create a Gubuntu distribution? Doesn't seem very likely, unless Shuttleworth buys Trolltech. There is another way though, he
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
So now you're saying that it's 'ethically dubious' for free software programmers to contribute code to a project if there's a properitary version of it? That'd make it 'ethically dubious' to contribute anything to a BSD-licensed project then.
That's an incredibly narrow-minded ethic you've got there. Not even RMS would agree with that.
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2)
FSF requires your signature on wierd legal papers before accepting anything.
Re:A question on dual licensing (Score:2, Informative)
Like today people installed and ran that pirated software, learned how to use it and when the
I wish (Score:3, Interesting)
I wish the QT supported full reflection and serialization so that drag and drop could be fully intergated in KDE.
I wish they would make QT thread safe so that when web plugins and konquerer tabs crashed they didn't take all my konqueror windows with
them.
and finally I wish that new guy would read my comment.
Re:I wish (Score:3, Informative)
I wish you would learn what threading means and how it relates to what you can expect from the memory state of other threads if one of them crashes.
Re:I wish (Score:3, Informative)
"Thread-safe" means that an API can be used in two threads simultaneously without them interfering with each other. It does not mean that a process is protected from being killed when one of its threads causes a segfault or whatever. Qt is thread-safe.
What you are complaining about is not thread-safety, but the fact that Konqueror uses threads for separate
Re:I wish (Score:2)
The following code crashes immediately with a SIGSEGV, even though the segmentation fault is in a child thread (and I've tried this without detaching the thread, too):
Re:I wish (Score:2)
I've never heard of this being done. Please let us know how to perform this magic.
Rik
In other Be-related news... (Score:3, Interesting)
Axel's development blog [blogspot.com] is available, as is the story on OSNews [osnews.com] where I found the link.
Apparently, Haiku should have a bootable CD image soon.
Benaphores (Score:3, Interesting)
Out of all of the people that presented at the various Be Dev Conferences, he's the one that was the least impressive. He seemed to be cut from the same cloth as JLG when it came to attitude, with nothing to really back it up.
Qt/Embedded is evil (Score:2)
Can't agree. Try X/Qt, or try a different ROM (Score:3, Interesting)
The best thing about QTopia is that it has a *superb* web browser, namely Opera and if you don't like that
Re:Trolltech.. (Score:5, Informative)
as aposed to people who troll for arguments which is
Re:Trolltech.. (Score:2)
They went on for a few minutes talking about various different trolls of which you already mentioned, but what I found most interesting is that they're supposedly good luck if you see one.
Re:Trolltech.. (Score:5, Funny)
I get it! So a troll is either good or bad, and either big or small. Thanks, that clears a lot up.
Re:Trolltech.. (Score:2)
Actually it's from the same word (Score:2)
Re:What Did BeOS Do? (Score:2)
BeOS was interesting because it was a very graphical, easy-to-use (or so I've heard) media-centric OS that was based on a real preemptive-multitasking kernel with native support for the POSIX API and a good Unix-like CLI pre-installed. The kernel, to my knowledge, wasn't really Unix-like (it was a single-user OS) but it had Unix-like stability and (as I've mentioned) true multitasking.
Basically, it was MacOS X back when Apple's Macintosh was stagnating and losing serious ground to the Microsoft-centric PC
Re:What Did BeOS Do? (Score:2)