[PyKDE] Sigh, it was a nice affair while it lasted...

[David Boddie]

On Sun Jan 7 23:11:12 MET 2007, Kenneth McDonald wrote: 
 
> After my brief flirtation with PyKDE, I'm afraid I have to say goodbye. 
> It looks like a great package, but I'm afraid the viral GPL has driven 
> me away. I say this not to start a flame war, but simply to let people 
> know that the GPL does drive some people away (perhaps as it attracts 
> others). I would love to try writing a commercial app in PyKDE 
> (contributing fixes to the codebase, as well as licensing fees), but 
> this is obviously not possible. 
 
It seems a shame that the closed source approach is often seen as the 
only viable approach to commercial deployment of applications. Another 
approach that can also be successful is the open source plus service and 
support model, but this may not be compatible with existing business 
models involving certain kinds of software. :-( 
 
It would be interesting to know whether you're forced to follow a 
traditional business model and find that a GPL-licensed application 
doesn't fit in with it, or whether you considered other business models 
and rejected them for other reasons. 
 
David