RE: KDE vs. Gnome?

["Poletti, Don" <don poletti comverse-in com>]

There is one major issue that for some reason never seems
to get mentioned. Its also a licensing issue.

The GTK widget set that gnome is based on is NOT GPLed its
LGPL. That is the Library General public license. This means
that I can write a commercial application for GNOME (using the
gnome/gtk libraries) and charge money for it. Now I have a few 
software programs that I want to release and they will be GPL
but I think for GNOME to be successful the OS has to be free
for commercial use. If gnome ever included GPLed libraries I
might switch to KDE because then GNOME Commercial programs would be
illegal. Fortunately the GNOME team seems to understand this 
issue very well.

KDE on the other hand is released QPL. These means its free
for free projects to use but for a commercial program to
use KDE that have to pay a fee to Troll tech for the use of the
libraries. Technically the QT libraries are linked in but from
another prospective they are just the API of the operating
system. This means that commercial developer on KDE have to
pay for the privilege of using the OS's API set. Even Windows
doesn't work this way. I can buy a Borland compiler or use a
free one (I think gcc is available) and write Windows programs
free/shareware or commercial without paying anything to MS. 

Hopefully I haven't contributed to any flame war and if I'm 
wrong about some part hopefully it will be politely pointed out.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Meadows [mailto:andy347@mini.pair.com]
> Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2000 12:38 AM
> To: gnome-list@gnome.org
> Subject: KDE vs. Gnome?
> 
> 
> I'll admit it - I'm feeling dense.
> 
> I am running LinuxPPC 2000 and I did the "full install."
> I read that the install came with KDE as an option, but
> Gnome is the default.  I just figured out how to switch 
> over to KDE after using Gnome for a month.
> 
> Can anyone share any major  known pros/cons of each?
> 
> I really like the cool interface and a step towards the 
> Mac GUI that I know and love.  It also seems to be a bit 
> speedier as well.
> 
> Am I missing anything?  Am I giving up anything?
> 
> I see a lot more about Gnome on the web.
> 
> Where should I be focusing my time; Gnome or KDE?
> 
> Thanks!!
> 
> Andy  
> 
> ================
> Andy Meadows
> andy@macbroker.com
> 
> 
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