PyQT legalities (was Re: Tkinter and wxPython)

[Boudewijn Rempt]

jason petrone <jp at nospamdemonseed.net> wrote:
> Cameron Laird <claird at starbase.neosoft.com> wrote:
>> In article <s63qb9.6s6.ln at demonseed.net>, <jp at NOSPAMdemonseed.net> wrote:
>>>I would love to use PyQT, but doesn't it require shelling out $$$ to trolltech
>>>for a QT-win32 license?
>>                         .
>> No!
>> It's a good question.  Boudewijn has researched this
>> carefully, though, and talked to the Trolltech people.
>> His unequivocal conclusion, worked out with Trolltech's
>> knowledge:  "PyQt is free for Windows and Unix."

> While this may be ok in theory, I am still unable to find PyQT binaries for
> win32.  Could someone with a QT-win32 license compile PyQT and put it up
> somewhere for others to use?

It used to be true. However, when Trolltech donated a Qt/Win
developers license to Phil they didn't quite figure out that PyQt is
a development tool, and that this would mean free development using Qt
for Windows.  They put a stop to that, unfortunately, and the binaries
disappeared. I still have a zipfile, for historical reasons, but it's
not redistributable. (And the qt.dll that comes with it is old and
compiled without some essential options.)

Maybe it's best if I enumerate the options, since things have gotten
rather complicated nowadays.

1. Unix/X11

	* Qt/GPL is free (as in Free Software - you can port it to Windows if
	      you want to, for instance, or to OS X.)
	* PyQt is free (as in Free Software)
	* BlackAdder, the IDE based on PyQt and Qt Designer is not free.
	  It's $49.99 for the personal beta (no redistribution rights) and
		$249.99 for the professional beta (distribution rights once you
		get the final version, which you get as a beta customer. Everything 
	  you develop with BlackAdder will be 100% compatible with plain PyQt,
		such as comes nowadays with all major distributions.
		
2. Windows

 * Qt for Windows is not free. It's between $1240 and $2340 per developer
   depending on the number modules you get with it, and the volume of
	 licenses you buy.
 * PyQt for windows is free. You can compile it only if you have a Qt
   license for Windows, but you're perfectly free to do so and
	 redistribute everything you write with it, including PyQt and the
	 Qt dll's - you've paid for Qt.
 * BlackAdder for Windows is included in the BlackAdder for Linux box.
   It also includes the Qt dll, so you're all set to go. It's the most
	 affordable way to start developing with Qt on Windows and Linux.

This means that there is no longer a completely free way to develop
with Python and Qt on Windows. If you don't want to shell out for
BlackAdder professional, you could conceivably develop on Linux with
PyQt and Qt/GPL, and demand of you Windows users that they buy the
personal edition of BlackAdder: they will be able to run your software.

-- 

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.valdyas.org | Christos Voskrese!