Qt License?
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Hi there,
I'm a tad bit confused on Qt's LGPL license. Mainly, I find the Qt Creator IDE to be the best cross platform IDE for my needs. However, I have no real interest in the Qt libraries themselves, just the IDE. What I want to know is if the license applies to all of the Qt Creator package including the IDE, or just the use of Qt and its libraries. Say I want to write a program with the Qt IDE but don't actually use Qt in my application.
If I were to then sell said application\not make it open source, would I be bound by the LGPL license or need to purchase a commercial one?
Thanks for any information, and I apologize if this isn't the right section for this post.
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@Spirrwell As far as I know, use the IDE doesn't imply to use the LGPL. It depends on the code you write. For example, if you use Qt Creator to make a program in C++, you choose the license you want for it.
You don't distribute the IDE when you sell your application or just when you release your libraries to someone.
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@tarod.net is right.
To think of it another way: GCC is licensed under the GPL, but the programs that you build using GCC are not bound to the GPL license.
Similarly, Qt Creator is licensed un the LGPL, but the programs that you build using Qt Creator are not bound to the LGPL license.
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Ah, thank you all very much. With the way the main website works, it's a bit confusing. If you answer its questions and intend to use it for commercial use and not open source, it will want you to get a license for it.
Based on the information here, I really wish it would simply ask if you intend to use Qt's libraries, and would then proceed to give you just the IDE with none of the actual Qt libs.
I appreciate the answers given, thank you all very much!
