Comment An impressive decision - if they can pull it off. (Score 1) 103
Contrary to the prevailing opinion (Microsoft are big, Red Hat are big
in Linux, therefore Red Hat are trying to become the Microsoft of
Linux), Red Hat were not on course to be the Microsoft of Linux.
Troll Tech were.
Microsoft got where they are by making sure that it was very difficult
not to be Microsoft compatible and once you start defining things in
terms of Microsoft compatibility you might as well just go
Microsoft. It started with the OS (your program had to run under
MS-DOS/Windows) and then rapidly moved up to the application level
once casual electronic document exchange got going. E-mail sealed it.
Linux will not succeed as a mass OS without a single GUI, or at the
very least a single API to the GUI. Whilst the short sighted talk
"tools not rules", people who *use* computers just want something that
works, that runs all of their programs and is easy to use.
Assuming that KDE takes off, Troll Tech were looking to be in the very
nice position where anybody wanting to produce commercial software for
Unix/Linux were going to have to buy Qt. The Microsoft of Linux but at
the developer end of the business. And they had every hope that the
free software people wouldn't bother to develop free s/w whose primary
purpose was to let other people make money out of it. Qt would then
have been the only part of the Linux distribution that wasn't free. I
hope that Harmony can prove them wrong.
It will be interesting to see if Troll Tech try to bleed away support
for Harmony by relaxing every restriction on Qt *except* the right to
sell commercial products without paying for it.
Of course, it is perfectly possible that Troll Tech were genuinely
just trying to let people develop free s/w and the commercial
advantages were just a by product. That would be a fortunate
coincidence.
John
in Linux, therefore Red Hat are trying to become the Microsoft of
Linux), Red Hat were not on course to be the Microsoft of Linux.
Troll Tech were.
Microsoft got where they are by making sure that it was very difficult
not to be Microsoft compatible and once you start defining things in
terms of Microsoft compatibility you might as well just go
Microsoft. It started with the OS (your program had to run under
MS-DOS/Windows) and then rapidly moved up to the application level
once casual electronic document exchange got going. E-mail sealed it.
Linux will not succeed as a mass OS without a single GUI, or at the
very least a single API to the GUI. Whilst the short sighted talk
"tools not rules", people who *use* computers just want something that
works, that runs all of their programs and is easy to use.
Assuming that KDE takes off, Troll Tech were looking to be in the very
nice position where anybody wanting to produce commercial software for
Unix/Linux were going to have to buy Qt. The Microsoft of Linux but at
the developer end of the business. And they had every hope that the
free software people wouldn't bother to develop free s/w whose primary
purpose was to let other people make money out of it. Qt would then
have been the only part of the Linux distribution that wasn't free. I
hope that Harmony can prove them wrong.
It will be interesting to see if Troll Tech try to bleed away support
for Harmony by relaxing every restriction on Qt *except* the right to
sell commercial products without paying for it.
Of course, it is perfectly possible that Troll Tech were genuinely
just trying to let people develop free s/w and the commercial
advantages were just a by product. That would be a fortunate
coincidence.
John
