Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year
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@coders has decided to go with wxWidgets and it is perfectly fine. Software freedom means also being free to migrate. If one thinks Qt is not a good fit for a software, better to find a more suitable framework.
It is clear her/his trolling attitude (because the tone is not oriented towards a sane discussion [see a thread with a different attitude by @utcenter, while delivering the same complaints], but seems more to be "you fool guys/gals using Qt"). So what is the point to continue to argue with him/her?
Regarding the expensiveness, I personally think that, modulo the recent news, it has a raison d'être: it introduces a feedback cycle with a goal of spreading free software.
Let me elaborate:- If one is willing to afford commercial license, it is clear that it plans to make way more money than the license price, so Qt employees (whose work is bought) are paid and can live, and also the community benefits from that.
- If one is NOT willing to pay, you have the option to foster the open source ecosystem directly (GPL) or indirectly (LGPL). If these options were not available, chance is that the enourmous and passionate Qt community would never form, and way less people on the market would know the framework (and I think, given its size, it would be way more buggy than it is).
- I personally think that the small business license introduced recently will be a failure (too much restrictitive for "Western" countries), mainly because it outright ignores purchasing power. If ones looks at the chart and multiplies by 30 the average gross monthly income (12 months/year * 2,5 to accomodate for taxes on business revenue (in addition to income ones) and other expenses to run business, including hardware, offices, licenses, & co.) only Eastern Europe businesses could sustain more than one developer, and most Western Europe one-person businesses would not qualify.
- OTOH I'm perfectly fine with trading closed-sourceness and license costs.
@Astrinus said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
only Eastern Europe businesses could sustain more than one developer, and most Western Europe one-person businesses would not qualify.
Not exactly true. Even here in the wild east that turnover is laughable for anything more than 1-2 devs.
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@Astrinus said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
only Eastern Europe businesses could sustain more than one developer, and most Western Europe one-person businesses would not qualify.
Not exactly true. Even here in the wild east that turnover is laughable for anything more than 1-2 devs.
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@kshegunov well, two is more than one ;-)
@Astrinus said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
well, two is more than one
True enough, although even two is rather pushing it. :)
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@FPChris said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
I miss the days of paying $250 or LESS for an IDE and you're good to go.
You don't have to pay anything for the IDE at all. You mix up Qt (Framework library) and QtCreator (IDE) but I think you know this already since you only registered here to spam around.
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I realize this is an old thread, but my words are suited for it.
I use wxWidgets because my understanding is that if I create an application from the Qt Community Edition (no source code changed) that I, let's say, make millions from, the good folks at Qt will have their hands out for a piece of the pie, unlike wxWidgets. True?
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No, it's wrong.
Check the licences again.
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I realize this is an old thread, but my words are suited for it.
I use wxWidgets because my understanding is that if I create an application from the Qt Community Edition (no source code changed) that I, let's say, make millions from, the good folks at Qt will have their hands out for a piece of the pie, unlike wxWidgets. True?
@Driftwood said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
my understanding is that if I create an application from the Qt Community Edition (no source code changed) that I, let's say, make millions from, the good folks at Qt will have their hands out for a piece of the pie
No, the community edition is licensed under the GPL/LGPL. This is free as in "free speech" and "free beer".
Qt Doc Search for browsers: forum.qt.io/topic/35616/web-browser-extension-for-improved-doc-searches
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@Driftwood said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
my understanding is that if I create an application from the Qt Community Edition (no source code changed) that I, let's say, make millions from, the good folks at Qt will have their hands out for a piece of the pie
No, the community edition is licensed under the GPL/LGPL. This is free as in "free speech" and "free beer".
@JKSH said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
free beer
Did someone mention "free beer"?! 😆
Edit:
To make this comment at least a bit useful:
I would say "free beer" is not comparable to "free Qt". Once you got your beer, you can do whatever you like... drink it, toss it (what monster would do that?!) or mix it with other stuff ("change").
under the free Qt licence, you cannot do whatever you like (in terms of "changes" to the Qt source, for example) -
@Driftwood said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
my understanding is that if I create an application from the Qt Community Edition (no source code changed) that I, let's say, make millions from, the good folks at Qt will have their hands out for a piece of the pie
No, the community edition is licensed under the GPL/LGPL. This is free as in "free speech" and "free beer".
@JKSH said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
No, the community edition is licensed under the GPL/LGPL. This is free as in "free speech" and "free beer".
The meaning of "free speech" has been seriously perverted in 21st century USA, so probably not a good example...and "free beer" usually has strings attached:
- listen to my sad story and pity me
- support my political candidate
- I don't want to get in trouble by myself,
etc.
so perhaps a better analogy, due to the "strings attached" in the GPL.
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@JKSH said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
free beer
Did someone mention "free beer"?! 😆
Edit:
To make this comment at least a bit useful:
I would say "free beer" is not comparable to "free Qt". Once you got your beer, you can do whatever you like... drink it, toss it (what monster would do that?!) or mix it with other stuff ("change").
under the free Qt licence, you cannot do whatever you like (in terms of "changes" to the Qt source, for example)@Pl45m4 said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
Did someone mention "free beer"?! 😆
Sure did! 🍺
The under the free Qt licence, you cannot do whatever you like (in terms of "changes" to the Qt source, for example)
That is the whole point of copyleft licenses -- to provide freedoms for the end-users (as opposed to the developers) of software.
Traditionally, proprietary software licenses/EULAs heavily favour the developers but heavily restrict the end-users. It's like the end-users buy a car but are not allowed to tinker with it, pimp it, or even make repairs. The GPL license was created to shift the power balance from the developers to the end-users.
Of course, traditional developers didn't like that so the LGPL was created as a compromise: When using a library (including Qt) under the LGPL, developers are allowed to do whatever they like with their own code; they just need to ensure that the end-users can do whatever they like with the LGPL'ed part.
Once you got your beer, you can do whatever you like... drink it, toss it (what monster would do that?!) or mix it with other stuff ("change").
You can certainly re-mix the Qt source code (or any other LGPL'ed source code) however you like. You just need to share your new brew's recipe with your end-users.
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@JKSH said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
No, the community edition is licensed under the GPL/LGPL. This is free as in "free speech" and "free beer".
The meaning of "free speech" has been seriously perverted in 21st century USA, so probably not a good example...and "free beer" usually has strings attached:
- listen to my sad story and pity me
- support my political candidate
- I don't want to get in trouble by myself,
etc.
so perhaps a better analogy, due to the "strings attached" in the GPL.
@Kent-Dorfman said in Why is QT so expensive? 5000+ dollar a year:
The meaning of "free speech" has been seriously perverted in 21st century USA, so probably not a good example...and "free beer" usually has strings attached
Get better friends; mine never attach strings when they offer me free beer 😜
Anyway, the "speech" and "beer" were there to highlight different types of "free":
- The end-user's freedom to study/modify/share Qt
- The developer's ability to use Qt without forking out money
so perhaps a better analogy, due to the "strings attached" in the GPL.
Got any suggestions?
