[Interest] Qt free software policy

[John Weeks]

We are a small company selling a very large and complex application which is now based on Qt open source. At the time we first considered porting to Qt (version 4.3?) the license was very expensive for small company (six programmers) and the evaluation period simply wasn't adequate to deciding if it was the right way to go. So we went open-source when it became available when Nokia took over.

Since then, we have wished that we had a commercial license in order to get a bit more traction on some bugs. The Qt Company wanted us to pay for all the  licensing that had accrued since we started using the LGPL version. That up-front cost is prohibitive, so we haven't done it.

Perhaps, if you are trying to nudge folks toward commercial licensing, you could provide a path that isn't so expensive. Or maybe you have? We haven't bothered to look into it lately.

-John