Engadget is reporting that -- as part of Nokia's attempt to jump off of a burning oil platform or something -- Nokia is selling off...
...the Qt framework at the heart of Symbian and MeeGo development -- a platform Nokia acquired from Trolltech back in January of 2008.
From Nokia, Digia acquires Qt commercial licensing, services business, and 3,500 customers. In its press release, Digia promises to...
...continue development of Qt desktop and embedded versions.
...implement new service models.
...open branch offices in USA and Norway, adding to existing offices in Sweden, Russia, and China, with head office in Finland.
...support older platforms not on Nokia's roadmap.
...add 19 people from Nokia to its staff of 1,600.
Nokia won't be needing Qt much, now that it sold its soul to Microsoft, and Microsoft probably preferring Nokia not use a competitor to its own MFC.
About Qt
Qt [pronounced "cutey"] is a user interface framework, handling things like dialog boxes, windows, palettes, icons, and so on. It also handles data structures and networking. Its primary benefit is that it is OS-independent. This means a programmer can use the same UI for his software running on Linux, OS X, Windows, embedded OSes, like Symbian, and so on. It makes mutli-OS apps easier. (In contrast, the equivalent from Microsoft, MFC Microsoft Foundation Classes, is limited to apps running on Windows.)
CAD companies like Autodesk, Bricsys, and Graebert use Qt for their multi-OS CAD systems. [Update: a reader from Greece reminds me that Bricscad uses wxWidgets.] [Further update: All Points Blog says ESRI and Bentley also use Qt.]
Their hearts may be going pitter-patter this morning as they wake up to the change in ownership. The anxiety level can't be helped by the front page of Digia's Web site, which features stock photography of Happy People (including someone at a coffee klatch) and a featured press release announcing a profit warning, "NET SALES OF DIGIA'S MOBILE SOLUTIONS SEGMENT IN 2011 WILL FALL SHORT OF PREVIOUSLY EXPECTED LEVELS; CHALLENGES ALSO IN PROFITABILITY."
So, Qt will be in the hands of a company with lower-than-expected profits, and who just spent a boatload of money on an acquisition costing hundreds of millions of dollars. (Nokia bought Trolltech for $130 million three years ago. Trolltech invented Qt back in 1991.)
I recall from a couple of years ago a CAD programmer telling me that he felt safe using Qt, since it was now owned by Nokia, the biggest cell phone company in the world, which meant Qt had a secure future. How quickly things change.
I'm not sure Qt is the right choice for high-performance CAD UI anyway. I know these days some software would have us believe we have CPU cycles to burn, but IMHO Qt apps always carried larger process footprints and ran slower than say Gtk. Alternatively Pro/ENGINEER (now Creo) always used X/Motif which is just as portable as Qt, leaner, but perhaps not as sexy by some opinions..
Posted by: CADDIT | Mar 07, 2011 at 06:43 AM
For a long time, MicroStation also used Motiv/X. Dunno if it still does.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | Mar 07, 2011 at 09:25 AM
I have just been informed that the latest NX series is also using Motif for GUI framework even in their latest non-windows releases as well
Posted by: CADDIT | Mar 10, 2011 at 05:42 PM
NX was the result of the merging of SDRC I-DEAS and Unigraphics. Since the latter was first developped on UNIX (don't know about the former), I guess NX's Motif GUI comes from Unigraphics. Motif may be leaner than Qt, but it's ugly, from the few screen captures I've seen on the net, it does not seem to integrate well in a modern operating system.
Posted by: Norm C. | Mar 12, 2011 at 05:15 PM
The Nokia acquisition of Qt looked like a brilliant move: they got an software library that could be used to move desktop software to Nokia phones. They should have provided free Windows/Linux/Mac versions in an effort to get a wide acceptance for the library. And, of course, a free version that works with Nokia phones. Software success is about 3rd party developer support, be it Windows or AutoCAD.
Instead Qt licensing is a nightmare, partly advertising itself as open source, but still hinting that you better pay for licenses. Is it free or does it cost €6500 per developer/year?
That made wxWidgets a natural choice. And wxWidgets looks promising on the iPhone too, which sorts of fulfills the disaster for Nokia.
Posted by: Henrik Vallgren | Mar 16, 2011 at 01:32 AM
@NormC - Can you please clarify "it does not seem to integrate well in a modern operating system"? Since you mention screenshots as your basis for opinion, I'm assuming you still just mean "ugly"?
@Henrik Vallgren - WxWidget libs are leaner than Qt and do the job well (not hard to do, albeit -> Wx installprint 2MB / QT4 20 - before counting the endless QT4 wrapper modules uhhhhh...), good call. Yeah Qt licensing is a pain.
Posted by: CADDIT | Mar 22, 2011 at 07:15 PM
@ CADDIT
I should have specified "visually".
Also I'm not basing my opinion only on screenshots. A few years ago I've seen Pro|ENGINNER Wildfire v3.0 for Linux running on Ubuntu. For the text it didn't use the system's antialiasing (which in this age is unacceptable IMHO) or other system settings: fonts, menus, buttons weren't integrated well in the environment. And I was left with the impression of a "dated" UI. Apple is fanatical about making a homogenous user experience between all apps and they kind of have a point (even if they throw their high principles out the window when they make apps for Windows, iTunes being an example).
wxWidgets seems to do the job well... on Windows. On Ubuntu, my personal end-user experience is that Qt apps integrate a lot better visually with the desktop than wxWidgets. Two examples: Bricscad (wxWidgets) and ARES/DraftSight (Qt). Although the latter doesn't use the GNOME file open dialog (which is annoying), but I've seen Qt apps that do.
Posted by: Norm C. | Mar 26, 2011 at 04:25 PM