Category Archives: Technology

A better Qt because of Open Source and KDE

KDE and Qt have a legal framework for protecting Open Source Qt, named. I am one of two KDE people on its board. To explain a bit what we are doing, I have written a document “How the KDE Free Qt Foundation strengthens Qt”.

Background is the wish of The Qt Company to change some of the contract provisions. It is still a bit unclear which ideas exactly they are pursuing, but we will need to have a public consultation on them in any case.

My document is aimed as a reference to the current status quo, and to the history of the foundation. It is quite lengthy, but I hope that some of you find the content interesting enough to read it nevertheless.

KDE Free Qt Foundation at Akademy 2018

I am really happy that this year, I am able to attend Akademy again. This enables me to set up a BOF session. It is intended for members of the KDE community who are interested in KDE’s collaboration with Qt. We will talk about the KDE Free Qt Foundation (legal setup; history and future; perspectives: […]

New agreement of the KDE Free Qt Foundation

Today we were able to announce a revised agreement between the KDE Free Qt Foundation and The Qt Company. It contains major improvements for KDE (more platforms; more Free Qt modules; inclusion of Qt Project; many small details). It also comes with a change to the licensing rules of Qt, as described in the news […]

User Data Portability and Privacy – Comment on Recent News

On Thursday, the EU reached a compromise for a new General Data Protection Regulation. I would like to offer two short comments. First, the timing is interesting: One day later, a new law came into force that introduces increased surveillance of German internet users, and the US is also about implement a law that subjects […]

Big Data and International Development

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK, has published an interesting research report: Big Data and International Development: Impacts, Scenarios and Policy Options, written by Stephen Spratt and Justin Baker. It focusses on the use of the growing data pools in developing countries. It analyses several policy areas: economy, human development, rights, and […]

Availability of Qt Free Edition (updated)

In my last blog posts, I explained the KDE Free Qt Foundation, which guarantees the free availability of the Qt Toolkit. Today, The Qt Company introduced a new Qt online installer that requires users to accept additional license terms. Many people have contacted me with concerns about this change. I share this concern. Even before […]

Good news: Compatibility of LGPLv2 and LGPLv3

Two of the most used Free Software licenses are the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Both are copyleft licenses, meaning that you can use them as long as you do not remove the Free Software rights from downstream users. The difference is that the LGPL can be […]

Protecting Software Freedom – the Qt License Update

[Please also see the update.] In my latest blog post, I briefly mentioned the KDE Free Qt Foundation. Today I have some news to announce that relate to this foundation, where I am a board member representing KDE. What is the “KDE Free Qt Foundation”? The KDE Free Qt Foundation is a legal entity, set […]

The two sides of freedom

Today, I am launching my new blog. In this first post, I will discuss the concept of freedom. I start with general thoughts, and then I apply them to Free Software licenses and especially the Free Software umbrella KDE. Throughout history, the word “freedom” has been used to mean many different things. It has been […]