

PySide: LGPL Python bindings for the Qt Framework - mace
http://www.pyside.org/

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tuukkah
Related work: "Although based on a different technology than the existing GPL-
licensed PyQt bindings, PySide will initially be 100% API-compatible with
them."

Background: "Work on PySide was initiated within the Maemo division of Nokia
once the lack of suitably licensed Qt Python bindings became apparent."

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mrjbq7
It is very disappointing that Nokia and Riverbank couldn't find a way to work
together. Phil (at Riverbank) has done a tremendous job of supporting Qt on
Python, when Trolltech wouldn't. He has always been responsive, and attentive
to details.

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pavlov
I feel a bit sorry for Riverbank, the company that makes the existing PyQt
bindings, because their business model is being wiped out as Nokia replicates
their efforts 1:1. Riverbank relied on dual licensing (GPL + commercial) to
monetize their open source work, but this doesn't work anymore as Nokia has
converted the entire Qt ecosystem to LGPL.

But such is life for a toolmaker: when the platform provider decides that your
product is good enough to be integrated, you're out of business. The best
defense is probably to make tools that are not merely API plumbing, but have a
user-facing component that is not easily replicated.

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tome
Could they just have sold to the platform provider? Maybe not in this case,
but in general is a possible and good strategy?

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pavlov
The PySide FAQ says: _Nokia’s initial research into Python bindings for Qt
involved speaking with Riverbank Computing, the makers of PyQt. We had several
discussions with them to see if it was possible to use PyQt to achieve our
goals. Unfortunately, a common agreement could not be found, so in the end we
decided to proceed with PySide._

It sounds like Nokia wanted to make a deal first. Maybe Riverbank
underestimated Nokia's willingness to throw sheer manpower at working around
them, or perhaps Riverbank thought that reimplementing the APIs through
"cleanroom" reverse engineering would be more difficult than it turned out to
be.

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bd
Cool, though there is no Windows or Mac support (so far).

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tuukkah
Now that Nokia owns Qt, it'll be interesting to see what stance they take
towards Microsoft's and Apple's desktop platforms.

Somehow I think proprietary desktops have relevance to Nokia only as platforms
for rich internet applications which currently need some access to native
APIs, while the main focus is naturally on keeping their mobile offerings
number one (based on the number of units in use). Qt as a cross-platform
native API is an edge in this against Microsoft's and Apple's mobile
platforms.

To help in this, they can continue to bring software from the Free desktops to
the mobile world (Maemo, Qt, Python). They consider web developers important,
which can be seen in their work to integrate WebKit, Javascript, CSS, SVG into
Qt.

