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

[Jim Bublitz]

On Sunday 07 January 2007 14:11, Kenneth McDonald 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.

If you're not going to distribute your software, or you're going to distribute 
it for free, the license shouldn't make much difference. If you're going to 
distribute it commercially, there's a price for using PyQt/PyKDE - either you 
pay the "GPL price" and make source code available, or, since Phil and I own 
the copyrights to PyQt and PyKDE (but obviously not Qt and KDE), it may be 
possible to work out some arrangement to relicense both of those in some 
other fashion that's not GPL (which would probably require a non-GPL Qt 
license - most of KDE is or will be LGPL, I believe).

The question has come up in the past from some of the KDE people who might 
want to use PyKDE in a non-GPL fashion and the same offer was made, but no 
one has pursued it.

I'm not particularly interested in making money off of PyKDE (for one thing, 
it means I'd have to be reliable), and since Qt and PyQt are GPL'd, I think 
it makes sense to GPL PyKDE (and might even be legally necessary). But other 
arrangements are possible depending on the application.

Sorry for jumping in late - I've been without electricity for a few days again 
- 130 mph winds blowing trees into powerlines.

Jim