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Qt goes LGPL, and PyQt considerations

By vivainio

Using planet python for soapboxing:

Will PyQt be the new “standard” python GUI toolkit soon? After the enthusiastic reception of Qt going LGPL (thanks to Nokia), I can imagine that beginners will be probably be pointed to PyQt for their GUI needs, now that the license problem is no more. Obviously it’s too big to bundle with Python, but not too big to recommend as the first download…

Other toolkits have their benefits, but comparisons have been typically shouted down by previous problematic licensing. We can now forget that, and really see if other toolkits can actually match Qt on technical merits. Who knows, perhaps this move will invigorate GUI app development again, now that everyone is doing web apps ;-) .

Note: LGPL PyQt hasn’t been announed yet, but it’s fair to speculate that it will happen.

This entry was posted on January 14, 2009 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Qt goes LGPL, and PyQt considerations”

  1. anonymous Says:
    January 14, 2009 at 9:16 pm | Reply

    PyQt needs to change its license, too. Currently, it’s still GPL.

  2. Lucian Says:
    January 14, 2009 at 10:02 pm | Reply

    It would be great if it did become the recommended GUI toolkit. The bindings could be a bit more pythonic, but otherwise it really is the best out there.

    I guess the PyQt people didn’t think there was a need to license it otherwise since Qt itself was GPL with an exception, so they should be willing to change.

  3. Rene Dudfield Says:
    January 14, 2009 at 10:35 pm | Reply

    Hi,

    I think the short answer is ‘No’.

    Each toolkit has its pros and cons.

    eg, qt, and pyqt are a fairly large dependency, and are written in C++. This makes them unsuitable for some uses.

    Say you want directx hardware acceleration? qt won’t help.

    You may want access to different input devices that qt doesn’t support?

    There are many other examples why there will never be a standard toolkit – because each one can do things the others can’t.

    cheers,

  4. Walter Says:
    January 15, 2009 at 1:41 am | Reply

    Nokia has certainly gained the favor of a lot of FOSS supporters and with Python, having the huge support base it has, I can see one of two things happening. Either PyQt will go LGPL as well (which would certainly be the better option) or a new set of LGPL Qt bindings will emerge and steal the show.

  5. Stephan Sokolow Says:
    January 19, 2009 at 12:02 am | Reply

    @Rene

    Currently, one could argue that Tkinter is the official standard toolkit (it’s in stdlib) and that WxPython is the de facto standard toolkit.

    Having a standard toolkit isn’t about “one toolkit to rule them all”, it’s about agreeing on something that, like Python’s standard library, will meet all your needs most of the time.

  6. Sad User Says:
    July 17, 2009 at 5:53 pm | Reply

    BTW, PyQt LGPL just didn’t happened.

    Licensing still matters.

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