[PyKDE] Sigh, it was a nice affair while it lasted...

[Giovanni Bajo]

David Boddie wrote:

>> After my brief flirtation with PyKDE, I'm afraid I have to say goodbye. 
>> It looks like a great package, but I'm afraid the viral GPL has driven 
>> me away. I say this not to start a flame war, but simply to let people 
>> know that the GPL does drive some people away (perhaps as it attracts 
>> others). I would love to try writing a commercial app in PyKDE 
>> (contributing fixes to the codebase, as well as licensing fees), but 
>> this is obviously not possible. 
>  
> It seems a shame that the closed source approach is often seen as the 
> only viable approach to commercial deployment of applications. Another 
> approach that can also be successful is the open source plus service and 
> support model, but this may not be compatible with existing business 
> models involving certain kinds of software. :-( 

This fails to acknowledge that the person in charge of choosing a 
technical solution (such as a GUI toolkit) and that in charge of 
changing the commercial strategy of the company are not the same in any 
non-trivial case.

Qt and PyQt work because they *do* offer a dual-licensing model which 
fits any kind of business strategy.
-- 
Giovanni Bajo