Thread: Ari Jaaski says OSS must play nice with DRM and locked parts
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qgil is offline qgil
2008-06-15 , 12:00
Posts: 3,105 | Thanked: 11,088 times | Joined on Jul 2007 @ Mountain View (CA, USA)
#60
Originally Posted by vvaz View Post
Problem with Nokia and Trolltech is that we don't really know why Nokia bought TT.

(...)

So, why Nokia bought Trolltech and what is long term strategy for it in its portfolio?
Maybe the problem is that some people don't really believe the reasons Nokia is putting in clear words. They go down to conspiracy theories, don't find clear answers and end up saying that the move is unclear. But... what about just trusting the sensible explanations of Nokia?

Again from the press release:

Trolltech's Qt based technology assets facilitate application development for multiple platforms and devices

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In addition to the key software assets, its talented team will play an important role in accelerating the implementation of Nokia's software strategy.
So, what is this Nokia Software Strategy about? Quoting the press backgrounder:

Cross-platform frameworks enable innovation across our device portfolio and on PCs
Nokia’s strategy requires that we enable development of compelling applications and services for multiple platforms across the Nokia device range and onto PCs. The use of common frameworks and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) on top of our and other’s platforms will enable this in an efficient way.
(...)
Our software strategy is based on multiple software platforms with common cross-platform layers.
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Nokia will continue to embrace open and other standards based technologies. We believe open source will continue to have a key role in creating exciting user experiences, and we will work actively to further contribute to and to empower the open source community.
You remind the fact Maemo has a UI layer powered by GTK+. Why not reminding the also obvious fact that S60, Series 40 and Series 30 have different, non Qt based UI layers as well. These platforms run the big Nokia numbers, so you better think of them and not in Maemo alone to understand the move with Trolltech.

Considering the size of Nokia and its business, and considering the role "Qt Everywhere" would play in this software strategy, adding the team that develops Qt to the Nokia software units makes a lot of sense. Is this so hard to understand or believe?

Think in the wider context and think in the long run and you will understand why acquiring Trolltech makes more sense than anything else. The code (open or not) is just a product, and if Nokia was looking only after the code then buying licenses would have been enough. What counts is the people and ways of working that were able to produce that code.

By the way, to make Qt work on Maemo in addition to GTK+ is a rather simple issue compared to that. In fact, the community has almost done it already. Two weeks ago we explained how Qt is going to enter in Maemo from now to Harmattan.
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