Nokia reportedly looking to sell Qt

[HalationEffect]

From Ars Technica: http://arstechnica.com/information-t...-are-laid-off/

Nokia is shutting down its Qt offices in Australia, laying off the team that was responsible for developing key parts of the open source development toolkit, including the QML user interface layout system.

[SteveRiley]

I hope the Linux Foundation buys it. And I hope such action will spur more developers to learn Qt and contribute to KDE. Just think:

* Kernel from Finland
* Toolkit from Norway
* DE from Germany

What's not to love about that?

[HalationEffect]

Throw in some Swedish designers to work on look and feel, and we could have an unstoppable juggernaut on our hands!

[SteveRiley]

Throw in some Swedish designers to work on look and feel

I'm imagining an IKEA theme for KWin. It comes disassembled, in a virtual cardboard box, and includes a hex wrench for assembly

[HalationEffect]

Eeek... if it's based on IKEA, one essential component would be missing entirely, and two other parts will have unnecessary duplicates

[scoon]

I'm imagining an IKEA theme for KWin. It comes disassembled, in a virtual cardboard box, and includes a hex wrench for assembly

Ha - that's a good one...

[oshunluvr]

Eeek... if it's based on IKEA, one essential component would be missing entirely, and two other parts will have unnecessary duplicates

Likely, but you could get meatballs and frozen yogurt with it for just a couple dollars!

[GreyGeek]

It would be nice if the man who supports Kubuntu would buy it.

[kubicle]

Digia is the new owner:
http://www.digia.com/en/Home/Company...Qt-from-Nokia/

[SteveRiley]

Hmm...

[SteveRiley]

Wow.

[dequire]

It's all good now, Steve

http://www.digia.com/en/Home/Company...-Qt-from-Nokia

[GreyGeek]

The link works now, 8 hours later.

That Digia now owns the whole thing is a good outcome, IMO. The KDE crew likes Digia.
http://dot.kde.org/2012/06/25/digia-...porting-member

So, all in all, Qt and KDE are now in a better position than ever before. I also expect to see commercials for both versions of Qt.

I used the commercial version of Qt ($1,500 purchase, $750/yr support) and it was well worth the money. The support (albeit from Trolltech) was phenomenal! IF I were to come out of retirement and resume programming I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to purchase the commercial version of Qt. (Note: the only difference between the commercial version and the GPL version is that
1) the commercial version came with Oracle and other major db support built in
2) a developer could release binaries only and didn't have to supply the source.

The GPL version would require the developer to code and compile an Oracle or other proprietary database solution, and one has an obligation to supply the source that generated the binary if a client asks for it. However, the db situation in GPL Qt is far from bleak. It comes with built in support for PostgreSQL which, IMO, is equal to and in some ways superior to Oracle.

[kubicle]

The link works now, 8 hours later.

Yup, the link worked when I posted it, but Digia servers were likely hammered to pulp when the news broke.

EDIT: picked this up on kde-devel mailing list:
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-devel&m=...199223645&q=p3

[MoonRise]

Wow. Been bogged down with sooooo many software launches at work I missed this news! Hope this is a good thing for Qt.