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@ -56,160 +56,9 @@ |
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Because QT (on which the whole KDE bases) is a non-GPL library a |
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lot of concerns have been mentioned, one of them making Debian and |
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others to stop distributing KDE. As a result of this, authors of other |
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parts of KDE have moved to the Artistic License. Since the Artistic |
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License is too liberate for me (it allows to make proprietary software |
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based on the work of the respective author), i do not go this road. |
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parts of KDE have moved to the Artistic License. |
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Now since some of these authors might want to reuse the core parts |
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of Konsole (and i encourage them to do so), i have formally to enable |
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them by putting these parts under a different license (LGPL for |
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these authors and an extra permission for Debian). |
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~~~~~ |
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Can Linux dance with the wolf? |
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A Personal Statement |
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Having just changed the license of Konsole, i do not want to go back to |
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work without expressing some personal thoughts about issues related to the |
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whole process. Statements like this from KDE developers are rare and so |
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are the discussions among them about it. These are my personal views. |
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I do share some concerns of Debian, Red Hat, RMS and many others about the |
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non-GPL-free foundation of KDE, although i see no real problem arising from |
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it now or in future. That how-shall-we-deal-with-QT is not agreed upon |
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throughout the free software movement is perhaps the biggest problem that |
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we have with QT in the moment. To ease the minds of the many concerned, |
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I'll port my KDE share to Harmony as soon as it becomes usable. I will not |
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see advance in this, though, which will become clear if you read on. |
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Troll has been going towards the free software community as far as any |
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company i can think of can go without releasing their product under the |
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GPL. They have to continue releasing their product under the current |
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license. If not, it falls under GPL. Their source is open and free for |
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freeware development. Practically, they have to incorporate our changes |
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if they want to be part of the game. The only ones who have to pay Troll |
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for QT are people who are making money from it. I think that's legitimate |
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and fair, even seen through a looking glass. |
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The KDE authors have carefully chosen QT both because of it's technical |
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merits and it's liberate license, thereby raising a loan from a generous |
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company, which is in fact unusual. Of cause one can worry about the cost |
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of the debt and may feel angry about being included in the group of |
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debtors without ever being asked. But i don't see it is so hard to say |
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"Thank you, Troll". And yes, the price of freedom is courage. Ours and |
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their's. |
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Immanuel Kant stated freedom as pure independence, a basic border against |
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the freedom of others. Hegel, who lived 50 years later, pointed out on the |
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shortcomings of this idea (isolation), and found (quite typical for him) |
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that freedom grows from mutual dependencies. How true. Living in Europa, |
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i could tell about the dependencies of the separate countries becoming |
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deeper over the the last centuries and how ridiculous tight our borders |
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are today. Having spent the last nine month in the United States living a |
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foreigner's life, i could tell about other borders to overcome. As a part |
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of the free software movement, I'm concerned about the splendid isolation |
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that this movement has from the commercial part of software production. |
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While lately many important companies have made tries to get involved |
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in our movement, the KDE project is currently the only attempt from our |
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side. I see the QT dependency of KDE as an experiment and that Troll, |
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the KDE developers, the Harmony programmers and any users of the KDE |
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project taking their share of the risk in this process. It may fail, but |
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knowing the involved groups, i hold this for being very unlikely. They |
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all have individually the strength to handle the issue. |
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To achieve a greater penetration of the way we want to produce and share |
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our work into the corporate part of our particular trade, experiments |
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like this are badly needed in my opinion. I have been writing to RMS and |
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ask him to think about formulating a license that would still suit the |
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needs of the free software movement and gives hint to companies that want |
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to release their source for the use within the free software community. |
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A delicate task for sure. May be he didn't understand my intention, but the |
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outcome was, that he declined the necessity of such a license. So GNU does |
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not head or guide these attempts, and it is left to individual software |
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authors, companies and everyone else to deal with this fact. |
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It is not true that the KDE authors do not take care for the freeware |
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movement, especially including GNU. To the contrary, their effort has |
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pushed the whole movement far forward from a state when moxfm and lesstif |
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have been the only hopes of the desktop interested part of this it. |
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Although I'm personally not addicted to harmony, i do not like to take |
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part on the flame war related to the KDE and GNOME projects. But i do want |
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to make Debian and others to become aware of the outcome of what they are |
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doing to the KDE project by deciding not to distribute it. |
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As said in the rational of the Konsole's license, many KDE developers |
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felt being forced by Debian latest steps to release their work under the |
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Artistic License, which is Debian- but not GNU-free. So the result of |
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Debian's pushing is a loss for GNU. They may well continue to throw stones |
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after the KDE project until they will finally have managed to build a wall. |
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Talking politically, i want to express that a structural redesign is not |
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only necessary when a program's task becomes larger and more advanced, |
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but also when a movement grows and goes down it's road. Are we still able |
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to integrate new parts or have we already reached our limits? Are we really |
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compatible to the rest of the world? Are we loosing our identity by such |
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an integration or are we loosing more then we gain? Does anyone outside |
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have to give up their identity completely before they can take part on our |
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game? |
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They're talking about "World Domination" in the Linux community, be it |
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seriously of for fun. But can this mean anything different than to offer |
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a true improvement over the current situation to everyone? Our particular |
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trade tends to establish monopolies, and although companies never failed |
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to do their part to get one, all minus one always suffered badly from this |
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too, keeping themselves back behind their own possibilities. May be, the |
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Linux way of making software can do it's share to find out of these |
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troubles. |
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Economically, there' many people out who want to make money from their |
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work and publish their source to the benefit of everyone and themselves. |
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RMS suggestion that program authors shall spend their lives from offering |
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support for their products does not seem to work well, at least not as a |
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first step. It apparently grabs to short. The only ones making their lives |
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from freeware products now are some distributors. For me, this model appears |
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as being too tight under the current circumstances. |
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Troll work did not only overcome serious technical limitations in the X |
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construction by kicking out the obsolete Xt component and replacing it with |
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C++ which is far more suited to make new kinds of widgets, but they managed |
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to get deeper into the free software movement that any software company did |
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before. |
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I wish we could match their abilities both in technical and political |
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respect. I would love to see us all in a situation when parts of the |
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corporate world depend likely on Linux as KDE depends on QT today. |
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But playing with companies can be very dangerous. Most have a wolf's nature |
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and forget their best intentions when they become hungry. And that happens |
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to be periodically. The warnings not to do so are best founded. It certainly |
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takes lots of skill and courage and likely much luck not to get hurt. It's a |
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risk, but it can be a lot of fun also. |
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Everyone in the Linux community wants companies being involved. The larger, |
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the better. But now that this really happened many get scared when thinking |
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about the possible consequences. Those who express their concerns cannot be |
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be blamed to be cowards. A look on the research and development investments |
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of the larger ones can really scare the bravest. And that's only their eyes |
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but not their muscles and not their teeth. |
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The relation between the freeware community and the corporate world is |
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certainly a quest that will reappear in many forms, at least if Linux |
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continues to grow. We have to solve each of them in a individual way. |
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So how to deal with it? Can Linux dance with the wolf? With the bear? With |
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the dragon? With the troll? |
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Anyway, after this personal statement, i want to ask the distributors |
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to seriously reconsider their KDE-related politics and to respect our |
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programming effort as a true contribution to the free software movement. |
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I can well live with the *political* decision not to distribute KDE. But |
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i was very disappointed to learn that Debian did this with a poor legal |
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reasoning. We have a culture of discussion to care for, too. |
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Lars Doelle
28 years ago