Nokia to increase adoption of Qt with additiona...
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Nokia to add LGPL Open Source licensing option for the Qt UI and
application framework
Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced that its Qt cross-platform
User Interface (UI) and application framework for desktop and
embedded platforms will be available under the Lesser General Public
License (LGPL) version 2.1 license from the release of Qt 4.5,
scheduled for March 2009. Previously, Qt has been made available to
the open source community under the General Public License (GPL)
license. In addition, Qt will now be available from the new domain,
www.qtsoftware.com.
The move to LGPL licensing will provide open source and commercial
developers with more permissive licensing than GPL and so increase
flexibility for developers. In addition, Qt source code repositories
will be made publicly available and will encourage contributions from
desktop and embedded developer communities. With these changes,
developers will be able to actively drive the evolution of the Qt
framework.
Qt 4.5 will also be available under commercial licensing terms, while
licensing for previous versions of Qt remains unchanged. In addition,
service offerings for Qt will be expanded to ensure that all Qt
development projects can have access to the same levels of support,
independent of the selected license.
"Broader use of Qt by even more leading companies will result in
valuable feedback and increased contributions, ensuring that Qt
remains the best-in-class, cross-platform UI and application
framework. The accelerated development of Qt will allow developers,
including Nokia, to deliver better devices and applications, reduce
time to market and enable a wider deployment base for their
solutions," said Sebastian Nyström, Vice President, Qt Software,
Nokia.
"Nokia is making significant contributions to open source communities
through ongoing work with Qt, its contribution of Symbian OS and S60
to the Symbian Foundation and open development of the Maemo
platform," said Kai Öistämö, Executive Vice President, Devices,
Nokia. "By moving to LGPL, opening Qt's source code repositories and
encouraging more contributions, Qt users will have more of a stake in
the development of Qt, which will in turn encourage wider adoption.
Nokia will be able to leverage improvements in Qt across S60 on
Symbian OS, Maemo and OVI services without rewriting the source
code."
"Combining Nokia's OS-independent Qt application framework with
Freescale's enablement software offers OEMs and applications
developers a unique freedom of choice in selecting the most
appropriate Freescale chipset while allowing the developer to develop
and maintain a single code base of their application," says Raja
Tabet, Vice President of Solutions and Enablement Technology at
Freescale. The LGPL model is an excellent and timely licensing option
that will accelerate the adoption/deployment of the Freescale/Qt
combined platform."
"Qt is used extensively in Kubuntu and KDE applications, and
Canonical is delighted to see this breakthrough in its licensing
model," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project. "Qt's
new licensing terms will help us deliver ever more 'lustful'
applications to users. Nokia's continued investment in cross-platform
Qt libraries, and the Linux platform, is a major driver of innovation
in the free software desktop and mobile device stack."
"We applaud Nokia's move to simplify the licensing of Qt," said Joe
Miller, vice president, Platform & Technology Development, Linden
Labs. "We find Qt to be intriguing and innovative technology
regardless of licensing, but the new licensing has greatly simplified
our decision to pursue QtWebkit for integration into Second Life."
"Qt being available under the terms of the LGPL streamlines the
licensing of applications built using KDE components on top of
Qt-based applications," said Sebastian Kügler, KDE e.V. Board Member.
"This more permissive licensing will further lower the barrier for
adoption of Qt and KDE technologies. The KDE team welcomes opening up
the development process and is looking forward to further improved
collaboration between KDE and Qt Software."
About Qt
Qt is a cross-platform application framework. Using Qt, you can
develop applications and user interfaces once, and deploy them across
many desktop and embedded operating systems without rewriting the
source code. Qt Software, formerly Trolltech, was acquired by Nokia
in June 2008. For more details about Qt Software and its new
licensing model, please visit www.qtsoftware.com
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and
growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We
make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that
enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television,
imaging, games, business mobility and more. Developing and growing
our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise
solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide
equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through
Nokia Siemens Networks.
Media Enquiries:
Nokia
Devices Communications
Tel. +358 7180 45792
Email: devices.communications@nokia.com
Nokia
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 34900
Email: press.services@nokia.com
www.nokia.com
www.qtsoftware.com
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