Why isn't qt so popular

Developer01 · 30 Oct 2020, 07:21

Why isn't qt popular for other types of applications like web, mobile except desktop and embedded? i saw that qt qml is also effective as other web technologies for web development, so what makes it less popular in web and mobiel fields? What does it lack?

sierdzio · wrote on 11 May 2020, 19:07

You should rather ask people who are not using Qt :-)

I think there are many reasons:

native mobile languages are - naturally - more supported and endorsed by each platform
using Qt for mobiles is an extra step. Not only you need to install all SDKs, NDKs etc. but also install Qt, and make it work which is sometimes tricky. With Xcode/Android Studio alone it's simply easier to start
C++ is considered to be a hard language
many people already know Java/Swift/JS but do not know C++, Qt or QML
Qt Commercial offering is unclear, weird, expensive and complicated
neither of the big players (Apple and Google) have embraced or encouraged the use of Qt
just history... I'm pretty sure if back in the day Nokia did not completely miss the changing market, Qt would be much, much stronger on mobiles now
web - well you can't quite use Qt on web. It's only very recently that WebGL streaming and WASM became possible with Qt, other technologies were quicker. And again - web devs don't know C++ and have no reason to learn it

What does it lack?

Oh, too much to list ;-)

Don't get me wrong, though - Qt on mobiles (and on web) is possible, usable, and there are many products on the market using it.

mzimmers · wrote on 31 May 2020, 14:18

The reason Qt isn't more popular in general is simply a steep learning curve. Historically, software engineers aren't known for their patience -- probably because their users aren't either -- and rarely have time to invest in learning an entire platform. It's unfortunate, because Qt is a superb platform, and is wonderfully documented (for the most part).

Another reason, specific to mobile devices, is that Qt's claim to fame: "write once, build anywhere" just isn't that important to mobile developers. Few apps scale well from phone to tablet to desktop, so the benefit isn't there. In fact, as apps continue to flourish for mobile platforms, it seems that they're stagnating for the desktop, as browser-based solutions continue to encroach on their space.

I can't speak to Qt's web technology, but I'd hazard a guess that it's hard-pressed for a general-purpose platform to compete with ad-hoc development solutions for web applications.

None of this is to say that Qt's future is murky; in fact, it's quite bright. I think it will continue to attract developers, but not so much for its "build anywhere" feature as its feature-richness, solid integration with other technologies, and...the best user forum on the planet.

QtCoder87 · 30 Jun 2020, 05:14

As a GUI in C++ I think Qt is popular of course by excluding non-C++.

Problems I see with Qt is:

not the whole Qt Library is LGPL. Qt Charts for example is afaik GPL. I personally do not use Libraries under GPL. Only LGPL or permissive. So I only use LGPL Qt parts.
C++ has a bad reputation as hard language.

Probably startup companies are afraid of getting copyright lawsuits if they use Qt at beginning. (just guessing not sure). If I start a company I would not have so much money to pay a commercial license.

jsulm · 30 Jun 2020, 20:25

@QtCoder87 said in Why isn't qt so popular:

Probably startup companies are afraid of getting copyright lawsuits if they use Qt at beginning.

$499 per year shouldn't be too much for a startup: https://www.qt.io/en-us/qt-for-small-business

QtCoder87 · J jsulm 30 Jun 2020, 05:14

@jsulm
if you start from Scratch? I mean Just PC and money for food and Rent. and maybe some state money. If I lost job and started a company I probably would not be able to pay 500 Bugs. Not because I would not have 500 USD I needed some savings, since state unemployed insurance is not that high. It depends of course how fast my company grow in the next months. But I am rather careful about future forecasts.

jimsmiths · 30 Oct 2020, 07:25

This post is deleted!

jsulm · 30 Oct 2020, 13:13

@jimsmiths said in Why isn't qt so popular:

Qt is not a C++ library

It is even if it requires moc as additional build step.

fcarney · J jsulm 30 Oct 2020, 07:25

@jsulm said in Why isn't qt so popular:

Qt is not a C++ library

Lol, the passion of people. Next thing they will say is HTML is not a machine learning language...

Thank You · 24 May 2021, 06:38

@jsulm No sir, It may not be big amount for you or in your country. But in other countires
it is more than 50k which is soo expensive for begineers to start with. You may think salary may be high but it's 1/3 times less than that monthly.Although I don't work. I am sure it is one of the bigger reason that people don't use it. Instead other frameworks are free of cost. I consider as biggest reason of its low popularity.
If QT will be free, I am sure the no. of developers will increase hugely

JonB · 24 May 2021, 07:25

@Thank-You
As discussed, the small business commercial offering does not cost "50k". $500 is not $50k.

In any case, the community edition is free, so why not use that? Why do you need the commercial edition?

Thank You · 24 May 2021, 07:42

@JonB said in Why isn't qt so popular:
Nope bro, In other countries it is equivalent to 50K of that country 😂😂 Not dollars
Can we use community edition for small companies to earn some money??

JonB · wrote on 24 May 2021, 07:42

@Thank-You said in Why isn't qt so popular:

Nope bro, In other countries it is equivalent to 50K of that country 😂😂 Not dollars

Then say so in your response! I had no idea that your "50k" meant in some unnamed currency, and without knowing the currency it could be the equivalent of $1 for all we know! :) [I remember when there used to be 1,500 Italian Lira to the £, so 50k Lira was like 40$ !]

Can we use community edition for small companies to earn some money??

Yes, of course, 100%. You simply have to abide by the LGPL for the majority of Qt, or the GPL of a couple of optional packages if you use them. But you certainly can earn money from the community edition, without paying a fee or royalties. The commercial version is essentially there if you want to hide your source code, that's all.

mzimmers · 24 May 2021, 15:22

@JonB in the interest of full accuracy, there are features not available in Community, right? As well as certain versions (I notice my maintenance tool doesn't make 5.14.2 available to me)?

JonB · wrote on 24 May 2021, 15:22

@mzimmers
Yes. I did italicize essentially. I think the poster I was replying to is going to be a "small" user, hence the summary. Other features, and the release support situation, are more likely (italicized again) to be of most interest to "larger" users.

macfanpl · 29 May 2021, 19:32

Why Qt is so unpopular? OK lets dicklate:

stupid, unclear $500/yr for licence; its counter-productive; when you own startup, and you see $500 tag, you simply go eksewhere; there are tons of raples that are cheaper/free with much greater functions set,
shit software like kde, gnome, fuckUI, moodle etc
known installer bugs like having to install SHITAS ( fuck you kde )

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sierdzio · 30 May 2021, 04:30

@macfanpl said in Why isn't qt so popular:

shit software like kde, gnome, fuckUI, moodle etc

3 out of 4 items on your list don't use Qt at all....

known installer bugs like having to install SHITAS ( fuck you kde )

There is no KDE stuff in Qt installer ;-)

Thank You · wrote on 30 May 2021, 04:30

@sierdzio But the first one is soooooo true

JonB · 21 Jun 2021, 10:27

@macfanpl said in Why isn't qt so popular:

there are tons of raples that are cheaper/free with much greater functions set,

What toolkits other than Qt do you recommend for C++ development with single source for Windows/Linux/MacOS (desktop)?

thierryhenry14 · 16 Jun 2021, 17:26

C++ was dead in the enterprise years ago. Most people writing new C++ projects these days are writing an OS/browser/game engine/stock trading system, which means it's a very niche language. (think what % these projects are, compared to all new software projects). Universities stopped using C++ in their classes at least a decade ago.

On top of that, the sort of 50yo+ people who still champion C++ in 2020 for general development, hate the readable, well-designed, object-oriented API of Qt, because it's not "pure" C++. They hate that moc adds features to the C++ language that make it more convenient to use, they hate that Qt made their own types even though they're far superior to stdlib's (eg QString vs std::string).

So Qt is a niche framework for a niche programming language.

Edit 1: and for your average mobile developer, the expensive license to be able to publish to iOS makes it a non-starter. Everyone else is fighting to give them free dev tools, but here comes Qt saying "pay us $500/month "or whatever it's at now.