[Interest] Well there goes Nokia

[Sivan Greenberg]

I think Google could be interested in that.

Opinions ?

-Sivan

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Linos <info at linos.es> wrote:
> On 02/08/12 09:46, Bo Thorsen wrote:
>> Den 01-08-2012 20:32, Jason H skrev:
>>> Would I?
>>>
>>> I'm no expert at making money, however I think that if there was an
>>> organization staffed with people who could modify Qt and interested
>>> companies that companies could contract for the desired modifications.
>>> The problem is playing nice with the open governance. And you could also
>>> offer sponsored development projects. Heck, use some crowd funding to
>>> cooperatively bust through some barriers. True, companies could contract
>>> directly, but they would have to be more hands-on and if there was a
>>> company they could centrally manage development so there is no overlap
>>> during simultaneous projects.
>>
>> It's difficult to really do this for several reasons:
>>
>> 1) The open governance is great for everyone using Qt, but it makes a
>> Trolltech business model more difficult. You can't just promise anyone
>> to get code into Qt anymore. It's still possible, of course, but you
>> have to argue the case for the code.
>>
>> 2) Digia has the right to sell commercial licenses. This means a *big*
>> chunk of the revenue stream Trolltech had is gone. I haven't heard
>> anything about this reverting right to Nokia so others could pick it up.
>>
>> 3) The copyright of the code is still Nokia owned. This means you can't
>> do anything with Qt that's not GPL or LGPL. So another possible revenue
>> stream - selling custom developed close source versions to customers -
>> is also gone.
>>
>> Those three were big parts of Trolltechs business model. There are still
>> some left - for example certifications. Anyone can set up a
>> certification system, the trick is convincing people it's worth
>> anything. I have all three Qt certifications from Nokia, and you would
>> have a *really* hard time convincing me I'd need one from you.
>>
>> What you have left is something I do every day in Fionia Software: Qt
>> expert contracting. All the things you have left is about coding -
>> either on Qt itself or with Qt. And that's the definition of what we
>> consulting companies do.
>>
>> It's very much a possibility that the consulting companies will be the
>> biggest commercial driving force behind Qt. If you look at the numbers
>> of git commits (excluding Nokia), that's already the case. Digia is far
>> behind. And now KDAB and ICS is hosting Qt conferences this winter.
>>
>> In this scenario, we'd be working in a pure open source project where
>> there would be no benevolent dictator. That's still a viable and working
>> model. Meaning even if Nokia goes poof today, Qt will still live. And
>> possibly even better than today - impossible to know.
>>
>> Bo.
>>
>
> The model where expert consulting companies of the project are making progress
> to it have been working wonders for PostgreSQL that it's substantially better
> with every release and it's already pretty good.
>
> I would prefer that a big company step in and hire actual Nokia Qt employees but
> if doesn't happens this is still a viable model (like PostgreSQL have shown).
>
> Regards,
> Miguel Angel.
>
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-- 
-Sivan