[kde-community] KDE presence on Software Stores

[Aleix Pol]

On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 2:37 AM, Inge Wallin <inge at lysator.liu.se> wrote:
> Hi Aleix,
>
> This is a very interesting initiative.  I have a few questions below that I
> think wasn't answered in the original post.
>
> On Saturday, February 14, 2015 01:06:57 Aleix Pol wrote:
>> Dear KDE Community,
>> KDE software distribution on different platforms is a longstanding
>> issue, especially on the not-so-free platforms. It's a complex issue
>> that the KDE eV would like to see addressed. This is why we are
>> announcing a new initiative to help our software reach some of those
>> platforms.
>>
>> First of all, we want to assure KDE is committed to Free Software. We
>> must ensure our software can be distributed on the distribution
>> methods the most loyal to Free Software philosophy (for example, see
>> [1]).
>>
>> On the other hand we can't stop there. We make software for people and
>> and we need to be where people are. Thats why we decided to take a
>> step further and make sure we there are official KDE accounts present
>> on the different platforms' official software distribution channels,
>> starting with the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store.
>
> How will the KDE applications get past the Apple App Store's ban on GPL? Or is
> that ban lifted now? I have no clue about the status for Google Play Store,
> but if there is a similar issue, consider the same question asked for that as
> well.
>
> Note that this is not a problem of us not wanting to be on their platform but
> them not wanting us.

We discussed this over at the kde-licensing mailing list
http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-licensing&m=141461187412524&w=2

Conclusion being, as exposed by Jonathan Riddell:

"I recommend licencing it under the normal KDE terms (GPL2+3+ev or
GPL2+ see https://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy) plus the
MPL if that's what is needed.  The MPL has a strange term 3.3 which
allows you to convert it back to GPL so it's unlikely to be a problem
should anyone take it straight from the Apple Store and make
additions."

This means that applications wanting to join the Apple App Store, will
need more license fiddling. On Android this seems to be less of a
problem.

>
>> This is an important step for KDE because it will open the possibility
>> to provide software for platforms we haven't really reached yet. It's
>> not about the platforms themselves, in fact it's about being able to
>> reach the users, who are there and should be able to take advantage of
>> the KDE software.
>>
>> This is also a call for action, it's a new initiative and we need your
>> collaboration most of all. If you are a developer, consider adapting a
>> KDE application, if you are a designer, help us re-think the
>> applications for touch-based environments, if you are a systems
>> administrator, help us set up the infrastructures that we will need.
>
> I am a little unclear here.  Is this an effort to make it possible to build KDE
> software for these platforms or an effort to actually provide builds?
>
> Regarding the first, I really would like to see a documented best practices
> page on community for how to set up a CMakeLists.txt file for how to create
> builds for several different platforms.  I have seen a few (marble being the
> most advanced) but they differ a lot. It would be nice if we could have one
> recommended way that it's done.
Well, I wrote a blog post about KDE on Android some time ago:
http://www.proli.net/2014/06/12/kde-software-on-android/

The toolchain code is present in the last extra-cmake-modules release.

I think there's many things KDE can offer in terms of infrastructure,
but this clearly depends on the amount of help I am going to get.

>
>> Initially I will be coordinating this effort so please feel free to
>> ask me if you have any question or comment and if you're willing to
>> help, please answer here or in private.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Aleix, with the KDE eV board
>>
>> [1] https://fsfe.org/campaigns/android/liberate.en.html

Aleix