Re: Exploring the recent QT open source issue.
Note: I am a debian developer, but I'm not speaking for debian as a whole
here. I'm simply making prediction based on how debian handles any software
that is allowed into our distribution. Nothing I say here is really specific
to KDE and gnome - if you had asked about qmail and sendmail, my response
would be the same.
Dana M. Epp wrote:
> My question relates to Debian's position on KDE at this point. Now that
> QT has a license that can be considered open source, how are the Debian
> maintainers going to follow up on this? On /. today there was mention of
> some people deciding to leave Gnome to return to the development circle
> of KDE, being that they don't wish to re-invent the wheel. I doubt that
> this will cause great instability in the development effort of Gnome in
> the long run, but it brings up some interesting issues.
>
> Will Debian now package KDE applications in DEB files now that QT is
> open?
We're still hashing out the implications of the license on debian-devel.
There may be incompatabilities with the GPL. Troll may get these corrected,
their license is not set in stone yet.
Once we're satisfied that the QPL complies with the DFSG, and soon as Troll
Tech releases the new version of qt with this license, qt will be moved into
debian's main distribution.
After the above happens, and once we're satisfied that KDE's license is
compatable with the new qt license (this may require small modifications to
the KDE license, or it may not, depending on what changes Toll makes in the
final version of the QPL), KDE will be moved into debian.
> Is Debian, like RedHat, going to still consider Gnome to be the official
> kit for their distribution?
Debian doesn't have an official mail daemon, window manager, text editor,
etc. Gnome isn't our official desktop, neither is KDE.
> Are considerations being made to allow for both?
Yes. We had both in the distirbution before we discovered the problems with
KDE and QT licencing, as soon as the licensing issues are fixed, we will
revert to how things were before (except qt and kde will be in main, not
non-free).
--
see shy jo
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