Be free Qt on Android

03.12.2013 BogDan Vatra 7 comments

In my first article that I wrote about Qt on Android I gave you a small introduction on how the port began and where is it now. I wrote about the fact that in November 2012 I contributed the port to Qt project, but I intentionally omitted one very important thing to tell you.

Before I contributed the port, me and Digia agreed to amend the KDE Free Qt Foundation license agreement and to add Android platform to it.

Qt on Android is now protected by the KDE Free Qt Foundation agreement. If you want to know more about Free Software, please read https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.htm first.

Why did I want such an agreement and what it means for you? Well, to understand why, first I’d like to explain why I did the port :):

• first and foremost I publish it as free software because I truly believe in free software philosophy. Why I believe so much in free software? Almost everything I know, I know it because I could study and learn from free software. Ok, I went to school and I learn things there, but, I master what I’ve learned when I had access to free software. Because I got (and still get) a lot from free software, I considered that it came the time to give back something in return. This was what I could contribute to the free software world.
• I started the port because I wanted to prove myself that I can do it!
• last but not least, was because I could do it :). I could do it because both projects were/are free and I had access to the source code. Well, Android is not that “free”, it is more “open” than “free”, but still I had access to its source code. I could do it because I had the luck to work a lot with Android as my daily job at Route 66, and of course also because it seems that I had the necessary knowledge (again, because of the free software) to do it :).Because I love the freedom so much and because I wanted to protect my work, I asked for such agreement.

What it means to you? It means that the Qt on Android port must always be kept for free (LGPL 2.1 & GPL 3), otherwise KDE Free Qt Foundation has the right to release Qt under BSD license if:

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Here you can find the full agreement.

Before I end this article, I want to make a few clarifications:
Q: Will this agreement encourages you to use the free version and you don’t need anymore to buy a Qt license from Digia to use Qt on Android?
A: NO! The agreement is not meant for such a thing. Actually even without this agreement you can still use the free version if you want. Personally I encourage everyone who can afford, to buy a Qt license. Qt needs a lot of money for improvements and to be maintained. Buying a license will help Qt and it will also help you!

Q: Will this agreement forces Digia to free “Boot to Qt” port?
A: Again, NO! “Boot to Qt” port is not based on my port. AFAIK (I didn’t see the code yet) is a completely different port and it targets other audience. “Qt on Android” port targets Android devices with full Android stack on them, these are the phones, tables, etc. that you are using every day. On the other hand “Boot to Qt” targets embeded devices with a stripped version of Android (doesn’t need Java and dalvik at all) check http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2013/05/21/introducing-boot-to-qt-a-technology-preview/ for more info. Because it doesn’t need Java and dalvik I can’t imagine how it can be based on my port!

In the end: I’d like to thank to KDE for KDE Free Qt Foundation, for helping with the agreement and for hosting Necessitas project. I’d like to thanks to Digia for kindly accepting this agreement. I’d like to thank to KDAB because they offered me a great job, which will allow me to push the port even further!

Here you can read Digia thoughts on this matter