So Nokia has announced a partnership with Microsoft around the Windows mobile stack, as I'm sure you are all aware of now. There have been various blogs and reactions to this around, including on planetkde.org. Reading them, it's evident that there's a fair amount of emotion and not a lot of fact on the ground.
While I have little good to say of the announcement that was made, what remains of interest to me is the level of investment in Qt, the strategic positioning of MeeGo going forward and what KDE's role can and will be as both of those things continue to mature.
Open governance around Qt is moving forward briskly and from what I gather there are some interesting and useful announcements to come. R&D investment continues. However, we (KDE) won't know the full shape of how this will impact our landscape in the mid- and long-terms until we speak more with people at Nokia as well as within the Qt team itself. That's going to take weeks, not hours or days. Pretty much anything said before then is going to be premature and stand an awfully high chance of being wrong. Qt is a big ecosystem with many players right now, and as with any big company making a big announcement sorting out the practical implications is not something done in an hour or a day.
What we in KDE need are calm, stable heads to plot the lay of the land first and then examine how our strategy should be adapted and extended. Change often produces opportunity, but first one has to understand the change to recognize the opportunities. Right now it's infeasible to speak to what the real opportunities and challenges are without first doing our homework.
Discussions with people in "in the know" positions about the relevant issues are happening and, most encouragingly, it seems likely at this point that KDE will be putting a task force together to focus on this evolving situation to ensure our interests are considered and that we can arrive at an informed and intelligent response.
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14 comments:
Nice one Aaron.
While it's important not to panic it's also important to be realistic about the way things are going that Nokia have been clear about. They are using Windows Phone as their primary platform and they are winding down all other research and development activities to almost nothing. In effect, they're becoming an OEM and not a platform.
A word of caution to Nokia though - every other company that hasn't kept some form of control over their platform code-wise and has gone in this direction have, at the very least, lost a great deal of money. Once you lose your platform you don't get it back.
@segendum: statements like "winding down all other R&D activities to almost nothing" is really the sort of jumping-the-gun proclamation that i'm purposefully avoiding because we don't have the information yet to make those statements.
that could turn out to be the case, or it could not be the case. we're still assessing the situation and doing our homework, and until then playing chicken little doesn't do anything particularly useful.
Nokia has just signed the novell deal, count them out in 5 years. IMO. Also, I'd make sure that KDE keeps the QT git mirrored, just in case.
Well..... Nokia have already made it clear what they're going to do. They've made it clear that they expect their research and development to be cut regarding their own platforms as well as Qt no longer being their primary development platform. I didn't make that up. That's their intentions. Symbian is going but Meego will continue in some form.
However, there is a big difference between a company announcing what they're going to do and it actually happening. Those who've partnered in this way in the last few years have usually backtracked pretty quickly.
I'm really hoping that Nokia and their shareholders out that idiot Elop.
But as for your post, you are correct and I'm glad that the KDE team has some wise heads on their shoulders.
I am quite concerned over what will happen, but not too much I can do except wait and see, and protest this foolishness whenever required or possible.
In a decade or more, Microsoft will be a textbook example of dangers to the free market, business, IT, and decency. They've lost their grip and they are taking those around them down in their own "death spiral"
Aaron, can you comment on the status of the Free Qt Foundation agreement? It hasn't been updated since before Trolltech was bought by Nokia, so it may have not survived the sale of the company. But based on my reading of the 2004 version, it should still be in effect as Trolltech is identified as party to the agreement along with their "Successor, Assigns", i.e. a purchaser or creditor after a bankruptcy, but this isn't entirely clear....
No need to worry Aaron, you can always switch to .NET.
Fully agree! I'm reading this while a tape of Tony Robbins was on ("How to master your emoticons"). Pretty funny.
It seems to me most people are making things up (or making it worse) because of some $RANDOM facts they have (almost hallucinating). Let's stay calm and wait for the Trolls to give the real facts!
Isn't Qt also distributed under GPL (or a derivative?) If so, why can't it be forked and maintained by the community -- a la GTK?
Why is there dependency on Nokia at all? Is there Nokia's IP which KDE uses via Qt?
Probably stupid and dumb questions but after reading all these talks and blogs, one does wonder!
A few questions about the worst case scenario. Say, nokia halts all qt development, but keeps the copyright (or sells to a linux competitor). A fork would become necessary.
- how realistic is a healthy qt evolution when developed by the (kde) community?
- will it be possible for a company to earn money with a qt fork (to fund further development)?
- could linux distributions be a realistic source of money?
I think we should tell the world, KDE, NO NOKIA!. This must happen now if we want the support of distributions and businesses. KDE is not damaged, which is our reputation is damaged. We need to differentiate. How will I give contributions of code to Qt if this agreement now, I have wasted so much money on Qt / Symbian?. If KDE and Trolltech not say things clearly, our image will be damaged irreparably.
I feel that Mr. Elop is preparing the ground for purchase and acquisition of hostile takeover by Microsoft, Nokia. For this reason interest in the stock market crash that Nokia. Messrs. Kai Oistamo, Tero Ojanpera Niklas Savander or you are preparing the ground. The other positions are men of trust, as Miss Mary T. McDowell, I do not understand their role in this game. Here the only people in the policy that they had had courage were Oli-Pekka and especially Anssi Vanjoki.
Microsoft is accumulated enough capital to launch this hostile takeover bid two years ago and I take a bet on beer to be produced in the coming Christmas.
PS: I can hardly write in English, sorry if I could not express myself properly.
Ummm.... Anone remember the whole Caldera/Sco debacle? Caldera was a solid distro way back when. The same things were said when it was sold/became 'Sco." Within 4 months you couldn't find the distro anywhere. Gone. Gone. Gone. Nokia is a sinking ship. They didn't "empire build" when they had the chance. Now they are circling the drain financially. 1 year from no we'll all be saying 'remember Nokia?' I just hope we aren't saying, 'remember Qt?' too.
What about the European Union open source Symbian project, Symbeose? Qt has to be a part of that stack.
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