Small business license vs open source version

[samuazcona]

Hi guys with a friend we are starting entrepreneurship we want to know what are the concrete advantages or additional features or difference between the open source edition vs the small business license.

Thanks!!

[jsulm]

@samuazcona Most important differences:

1. Some Qt modules/packages are not available under LGPL, only commercial
2. If you use commercial license you do not have to fulfil LGPL
3. Offline installers are now only available for commercial users
4. LTS releases are now only for commercial users
5. Support from Qt Company is only for commercial users

So, you should think about what Qt parts you need and whether you can fulfil LGPL and need support from Qt Company.

[samuazcona]

Thanks alot @jsulm for the information.

We are developing a mobile app android/ios we don't have any plans of do modifications to the qt libs or source code, just use it to create our app, using the open source LGPL license we can create a commercial and close source app?.

As I understand with LGPL only the derivatives components need to follow the LGPL and not the complete program, but as my app is using all the qt core can be my app considerate as derivation of QT a need to be open source and not commercial using the open source QT?

Is there a list of what's qt modules package are in the commercial edition an not in the open source?

thanks a lot.

[sierdzio]

@samuazcona said in Small business license vs open source version:

Thanks alot @jsulm for the information.

We are developing a mobile app android/ios we don't have any plans of do modifications to the qt libs or source code, just use it to create our app, using the open source LGPL license we can create a commercial and close source app?.

Yes you can create a commercial, closed source app and link to open source (LGPL) Qt. However, you have to fulfil LGPL requirements for this to be legal.

It's trivial to do on desktops and Android. It's either very hard or impossible on iOS. So if you are targeting iOS, you probably need commercial license.

As I understand with LGPL only the derivatives components need to follow the LGPL and not the complete program, but as my app is using all the qt core can be my app considerate as derivation of QT a need to be open source and not commercial using the open source QT?

Your code can be under any license you choose, LGPL does not care about it. If you modify Qt itself (for example, change source code of QString), then you need to publish these modifications to your clients (on demand).

The goal of LGPL is for users to have freedom to use their own version of LGPL library (they have to have a way to swap Qt libraries from your app with their own versions).

Is there a list of what's qt modules package are in the commercial edition an not in the open source?

I don't think there is a summary list (sadly). But each module lists the licenses it is available under in it's documentation.

thanks a lot.

[JonB]

@sierdzio said in Small business license vs open source version:

It's either very hard or impossible on iOS.

Purely because I am interested, could you clarify in one word to a non-iOS developer why this is?

[sierdzio]

@JonB said in Small business license vs open source version:

@sierdzio said in Small business license vs open source version:

It's either very hard or impossible on iOS.

Purely because I am interested, could you clarify in one word to a non-iOS developer why this is?

iOS apps are statically linked and use an awful amount of extra plists, configs and stuff. Deploying an iOS app is hard even if you do have all the source code. So without it, it will be worse ;-)

I'm not an iOS dev either, though, I may be wrong about it.

[Arthur H Curry]

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