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Why isn't qt so popular

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  • sierdzioS Offline
    sierdzioS Offline
    sierdzio
    Moderators
    wrote on last edited by
    #2

    You should rather ask people who are not using Qt :-)

    I think there are many reasons:

    • native mobile languages are - naturally - more supported and endorsed by each platform
    • using Qt for mobiles is an extra step. Not only you need to install all SDKs, NDKs etc. but also install Qt, and make it work which is sometimes tricky. With Xcode/Android Studio alone it's simply easier to start
    • C++ is considered to be a hard language
    • many people already know Java/Swift/JS but do not know C++, Qt or QML
    • Qt Commercial offering is unclear, weird, expensive and complicated
    • neither of the big players (Apple and Google) have embraced or encouraged the use of Qt
    • just history... I'm pretty sure if back in the day Nokia did not completely miss the changing market, Qt would be much, much stronger on mobiles now
    • web - well you can't quite use Qt on web. It's only very recently that WebGL streaming and WASM became possible with Qt, other technologies were quicker. And again - web devs don't know C++ and have no reason to learn it

    What does it lack?

    Oh, too much to list ;-)

    Don't get me wrong, though - Qt on mobiles (and on web) is possible, usable, and there are many products on the market using it.

    (Z(:^

    1 Reply Last reply
    10
    • mzimmersM Offline
      mzimmersM Offline
      mzimmers
      wrote on last edited by
      #3

      The reason Qt isn't more popular in general is simply a steep learning curve. Historically, software engineers aren't known for their patience -- probably because their users aren't either -- and rarely have time to invest in learning an entire platform. It's unfortunate, because Qt is a superb platform, and is wonderfully documented (for the most part).

      Another reason, specific to mobile devices, is that Qt's claim to fame: "write once, build anywhere" just isn't that important to mobile developers. Few apps scale well from phone to tablet to desktop, so the benefit isn't there. In fact, as apps continue to flourish for mobile platforms, it seems that they're stagnating for the desktop, as browser-based solutions continue to encroach on their space.

      I can't speak to Qt's web technology, but I'd hazard a guess that it's hard-pressed for a general-purpose platform to compete with ad-hoc development solutions for web applications.

      None of this is to say that Qt's future is murky; in fact, it's quite bright. I think it will continue to attract developers, but not so much for its "build anywhere" feature as its feature-richness, solid integration with other technologies, and...the best user forum on the planet.

      1 Reply Last reply
      6
      • Q Offline
        Q Offline
        QtCoder87
        wrote on last edited by
        #4

        As a GUI in C++ I think Qt is popular of course by excluding non-C++.

        Problems I see with Qt is:

        • not the whole Qt Library is LGPL. Qt Charts for example is afaik GPL. I personally do not use Libraries under GPL. Only LGPL or permissive. So I only use LGPL Qt parts.
        • C++ has a bad reputation as hard language.

        Probably startup companies are afraid of getting copyright lawsuits if they use Qt at beginning. (just guessing not sure). If I start a company I would not have so much money to pay a commercial license.

        jsulmJ 1 Reply Last reply
        1
        • Q QtCoder87

          As a GUI in C++ I think Qt is popular of course by excluding non-C++.

          Problems I see with Qt is:

          • not the whole Qt Library is LGPL. Qt Charts for example is afaik GPL. I personally do not use Libraries under GPL. Only LGPL or permissive. So I only use LGPL Qt parts.
          • C++ has a bad reputation as hard language.

          Probably startup companies are afraid of getting copyright lawsuits if they use Qt at beginning. (just guessing not sure). If I start a company I would not have so much money to pay a commercial license.

          jsulmJ Offline
          jsulmJ Offline
          jsulm
          Lifetime Qt Champion
          wrote on last edited by
          #5

          @QtCoder87 said in Why isn't qt so popular:

          Probably startup companies are afraid of getting copyright lawsuits if they use Qt at beginning.

          $499 per year shouldn't be too much for a startup: https://www.qt.io/en-us/qt-for-small-business

          https://forum.qt.io/topic/113070/qt-code-of-conduct

          Q Thank YouT 2 Replies Last reply
          0
          • jsulmJ jsulm

            @QtCoder87 said in Why isn't qt so popular:

            Probably startup companies are afraid of getting copyright lawsuits if they use Qt at beginning.

            $499 per year shouldn't be too much for a startup: https://www.qt.io/en-us/qt-for-small-business

            Q Offline
            Q Offline
            QtCoder87
            wrote on last edited by
            #6

            @jsulm
            if you start from Scratch? I mean Just PC and money for food and Rent. and maybe some state money. If I lost job and started a company I probably would not be able to pay 500 Bugs. Not because I would not have 500 USD I needed some savings, since state unemployed insurance is not that high. It depends of course how fast my company grow in the next months. But I am rather careful about future forecasts.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • D Developer01

              Why isn't qt popular for other types of applications like web, mobile except desktop and embedded? i saw that qt qml is also effective as other web technologies for web development, so what makes it less popular in web and mobiel fields? What does it lack?

              J Offline
              J Offline
              jimsmiths
              Banned
              wrote on last edited by
              #7
              This post is deleted!
              jsulmJ 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • J jimsmiths

                This post is deleted!

                jsulmJ Offline
                jsulmJ Offline
                jsulm
                Lifetime Qt Champion
                wrote on last edited by
                #8

                @jimsmiths said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                Qt is not a C++ library

                It is even if it requires moc as additional build step.

                https://forum.qt.io/topic/113070/qt-code-of-conduct

                fcarneyF 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • jsulmJ jsulm

                  @jimsmiths said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                  Qt is not a C++ library

                  It is even if it requires moc as additional build step.

                  fcarneyF Offline
                  fcarneyF Offline
                  fcarney
                  wrote on last edited by fcarney
                  #9

                  @jsulm said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                  Qt is not a C++ library

                  Lol, the passion of people. Next thing they will say is HTML is not a machine learning language...

                  C++ is a perfectly valid school of magic.

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • jsulmJ jsulm

                    @QtCoder87 said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                    Probably startup companies are afraid of getting copyright lawsuits if they use Qt at beginning.

                    $499 per year shouldn't be too much for a startup: https://www.qt.io/en-us/qt-for-small-business

                    Thank YouT Offline
                    Thank YouT Offline
                    Thank You
                    wrote on last edited by Thank You
                    #10

                    @jsulm No sir, It may not be big amount for you or in your country. But in other countires
                    it is more than 50k which is soo expensive for begineers to start with. You may think salary may be high but it's 1/3 times less than that monthly.Although I don't work. I am sure it is one of the bigger reason that people don't use it. Instead other frameworks are free of cost. I consider as biggest reason of its low popularity.
                    If QT will be free, I am sure the no. of developers will increase hugely

                    Let's make QT free or It will go forever

                    TRUE AND FALSE <3

                    JonBJ 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • Thank YouT Thank You

                      @jsulm No sir, It may not be big amount for you or in your country. But in other countires
                      it is more than 50k which is soo expensive for begineers to start with. You may think salary may be high but it's 1/3 times less than that monthly.Although I don't work. I am sure it is one of the bigger reason that people don't use it. Instead other frameworks are free of cost. I consider as biggest reason of its low popularity.
                      If QT will be free, I am sure the no. of developers will increase hugely

                      JonBJ Offline
                      JonBJ Offline
                      JonB
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #11

                      @Thank-You
                      As discussed, the small business commercial offering does not cost "50k". $500 is not $50k.

                      In any case, the community edition is free, so why not use that? Why do you need the commercial edition?

                      Thank YouT mzimmersM 2 Replies Last reply
                      0
                      • JonBJ JonB

                        @Thank-You
                        As discussed, the small business commercial offering does not cost "50k". $500 is not $50k.

                        In any case, the community edition is free, so why not use that? Why do you need the commercial edition?

                        Thank YouT Offline
                        Thank YouT Offline
                        Thank You
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #12

                        @JonB said in Why isn't qt so popular:
                        Nope bro, In other countries it is equivalent to 50K of that country 😂😂 Not dollars
                        Can we use community edition for small companies to earn some money??

                        Let's make QT free or It will go forever

                        TRUE AND FALSE <3

                        JonBJ 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • Thank YouT Thank You

                          @JonB said in Why isn't qt so popular:
                          Nope bro, In other countries it is equivalent to 50K of that country 😂😂 Not dollars
                          Can we use community edition for small companies to earn some money??

                          JonBJ Offline
                          JonBJ Offline
                          JonB
                          wrote on last edited by JonB
                          #13

                          @Thank-You said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                          Nope bro, In other countries it is equivalent to 50K of that country 😂😂 Not dollars

                          Then say so in your response! I had no idea that your "50k" meant in some unnamed currency, and without knowing the currency it could be the equivalent of $1 for all we know! :) [I remember when there used to be 1,500 Italian Lira to the £, so 50k Lira was like 40$ !]

                          Can we use community edition for small companies to earn some money??

                          Yes, of course, 100%. You simply have to abide by the LGPL for the majority of Qt, or the GPL of a couple of optional packages if you use them. But you certainly can earn money from the community edition, without paying a fee or royalties. The commercial version is essentially there if you want to hide your source code, that's all.

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          2
                          • JonBJ JonB

                            @Thank-You
                            As discussed, the small business commercial offering does not cost "50k". $500 is not $50k.

                            In any case, the community edition is free, so why not use that? Why do you need the commercial edition?

                            mzimmersM Offline
                            mzimmersM Offline
                            mzimmers
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #14

                            @JonB in the interest of full accuracy, there are features not available in Community, right? As well as certain versions (I notice my maintenance tool doesn't make 5.14.2 available to me)?

                            JonBJ 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • mzimmersM mzimmers

                              @JonB in the interest of full accuracy, there are features not available in Community, right? As well as certain versions (I notice my maintenance tool doesn't make 5.14.2 available to me)?

                              JonBJ Offline
                              JonBJ Offline
                              JonB
                              wrote on last edited by JonB
                              #15

                              @mzimmers
                              Yes. I did italicize essentially. I think the poster I was replying to is going to be a "small" user, hence the summary. Other features, and the release support situation, are more likely (italicized again) to be of most interest to "larger" users.

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • M Offline
                                M Offline
                                macfanpl
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #16

                                Why Qt is so unpopular? OK lets dicklate:

                                • stupid, unclear $500/yr for licence; its counter-productive; when you own startup, and you see $500 tag, you simply go eksewhere; there are tons of raples that are cheaper/free with much greater functions set,
                                • shit software like kde, gnome, fuckUI, moodle etc
                                • known installer bugs like having to install SHITAS ( fuck you kde )

                                !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                sierdzioS JonBJ 2 Replies Last reply
                                1
                                • M macfanpl

                                  Why Qt is so unpopular? OK lets dicklate:

                                  • stupid, unclear $500/yr for licence; its counter-productive; when you own startup, and you see $500 tag, you simply go eksewhere; there are tons of raples that are cheaper/free with much greater functions set,
                                  • shit software like kde, gnome, fuckUI, moodle etc
                                  • known installer bugs like having to install SHITAS ( fuck you kde )

                                  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  sierdzioS Offline
                                  sierdzioS Offline
                                  sierdzio
                                  Moderators
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #17

                                  @macfanpl said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                                  • shit software like kde, gnome, fuckUI, moodle etc

                                  3 out of 4 items on your list don't use Qt at all....

                                  • known installer bugs like having to install SHITAS ( fuck you kde )

                                  There is no KDE stuff in Qt installer ;-)

                                  (Z(:^

                                  Thank YouT 1 Reply Last reply
                                  3
                                  • sierdzioS sierdzio

                                    @macfanpl said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                                    • shit software like kde, gnome, fuckUI, moodle etc

                                    3 out of 4 items on your list don't use Qt at all....

                                    • known installer bugs like having to install SHITAS ( fuck you kde )

                                    There is no KDE stuff in Qt installer ;-)

                                    Thank YouT Offline
                                    Thank YouT Offline
                                    Thank You
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #18

                                    @sierdzio But the first one is soooooo true

                                    Let's make QT free or It will go forever

                                    TRUE AND FALSE <3

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • M macfanpl

                                      Why Qt is so unpopular? OK lets dicklate:

                                      • stupid, unclear $500/yr for licence; its counter-productive; when you own startup, and you see $500 tag, you simply go eksewhere; there are tons of raples that are cheaper/free with much greater functions set,
                                      • shit software like kde, gnome, fuckUI, moodle etc
                                      • known installer bugs like having to install SHITAS ( fuck you kde )

                                      !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      JonBJ Offline
                                      JonBJ Offline
                                      JonB
                                      wrote on last edited by JonB
                                      #19

                                      @macfanpl said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                                      there are tons of raples that are cheaper/free with much greater functions set,

                                      What toolkits other than Qt do you recommend for C++ development with single source for Windows/Linux/MacOS (desktop)?

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply
                                      1
                                      • T Offline
                                        T Offline
                                        thierryhenry14
                                        wrote on last edited by thierryhenry14
                                        #20

                                        C++ was dead in the enterprise years ago. Most people writing new C++ projects these days are writing an OS/browser/game engine/stock trading system, which means it's a very niche language. (think what % these projects are, compared to all new software projects). Universities stopped using C++ in their classes at least a decade ago.

                                        On top of that, the sort of 50yo+ people who still champion C++ in 2020 for general development, hate the readable, well-designed, object-oriented API of Qt, because it's not "pure" C++. They hate that moc adds features to the C++ language that make it more convenient to use, they hate that Qt made their own types even though they're far superior to stdlib's (eg QString vs std::string).

                                        So Qt is a niche framework for a niche programming language.

                                        Edit 1: and for your average mobile developer, the expensive license to be able to publish to iOS makes it a non-starter. Everyone else is fighting to give them free dev tools, but here comes Qt saying "pay us $500/month "or whatever it's at now.

                                        VRoninV sierdzioS jsulmJ 3 Replies Last reply
                                        0
                                        • T thierryhenry14

                                          C++ was dead in the enterprise years ago. Most people writing new C++ projects these days are writing an OS/browser/game engine/stock trading system, which means it's a very niche language. (think what % these projects are, compared to all new software projects). Universities stopped using C++ in their classes at least a decade ago.

                                          On top of that, the sort of 50yo+ people who still champion C++ in 2020 for general development, hate the readable, well-designed, object-oriented API of Qt, because it's not "pure" C++. They hate that moc adds features to the C++ language that make it more convenient to use, they hate that Qt made their own types even though they're far superior to stdlib's (eg QString vs std::string).

                                          So Qt is a niche framework for a niche programming language.

                                          Edit 1: and for your average mobile developer, the expensive license to be able to publish to iOS makes it a non-starter. Everyone else is fighting to give them free dev tools, but here comes Qt saying "pay us $500/month "or whatever it's at now.

                                          VRoninV Offline
                                          VRoninV Offline
                                          VRonin
                                          wrote on last edited by VRonin
                                          #21

                                          @thierryhenry14 said in Why isn't qt so popular:

                                          C++ was dead in the enterprise years ago.

                                          LOL. Just LOL.

                                          https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=java%2Cc%2Cc%2B%2B%2Cpython%2Cc%23%2Cvb.net%2Cjavascript%2Cassembly%2Cphp%2Cperl%2Cruby%2Cvb%2Cswift%2Cr%2Cobjective-c

                                          Technologies come and go, C & C++ stay

                                          "La mort n'est rien, mais vivre vaincu et sans gloire, c'est mourir tous les jours"
                                          ~Napoleon Bonaparte

                                          On a crusade to banish setIndexWidget() from the holy land of Qt

                                          JonBJ 1 Reply Last reply
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