Hi Samuel, Thanks! It’s indeed been quite a ride, and I'd like to also thank you for being there and all the work you’ve been doing for the community over the years.
Cheers, Lars > On 18 May 2022, at 10:51, Samuel Gaist <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Lars, > > Thank you for the ride ! > > The road has seen some bumps but your teams and you have managed to keep Qt > moving forward in interesting ways through all these years. > > It has been a pleasure to work with you on some of my contributions. > > All the best for your new journey ! > > Samuel > >> On 18 May 2022, at 10:27, Lars Knoll <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hi all, >> >> Let’s take the big news first. I’ve resigned from my position at The Qt >> Company. More on that and what it means for the Qt Project further below. >> >> >> But as I’ve spent almost exactly 25 years in the Qt ecosystem, 22 of those >> working for the various companies owning Qt, I hope it’s ok if this gets a >> bit longer and I spend some paragraphs looking back into history. >> >> As said, it’s been almost exactly 25 years, since I first heard about Qt. At >> that time, I read an article in the German C’t computer magazine about a new >> Desktop project for Linux called KDE. The underlying technology being used >> was Qt. As a person that used Linux extensively during his studies, I >> immediately got interested and it didn’t take long until I started my first >> steps learning Qt. >> >> As some of you might know I got involved rather deeply about a year or two >> later, when I started the KHTML project to create a new HTML engine for KDE >> in 1998/1999. That project was later forked by Apple to form the basis for >> their WebKit project, the Safari browser and Google’s Chrome browser. It's >> cool to think that the browser engine(s) that most people use today started >> off as a Qt based project all those years ago. >> >> I remember getting to know some of the people working for Trolltech back >> then at KDE conferences. In the winter of 2000, they invited me over to Oslo >> to have a look at Qt. The company was at that time still tiny with 11 or 12 >> employees. I got a great tour of Oslo including the ski jumping tournament >> at Holmenkollen and signed up for the job. >> >> I was originally expecting to spend 2-3 years at Trolltech and then at some >> point move back to Germany. As you all can see, that’s not how it went >> though. I ended up staying in Norway and have been working with and for Qt >> ever since. >> >> Starting with Qt 1.0, Trolltech released the source code to Qt (at that time >> only for Linux/Unix), and the Open Source nature of Qt played a big part in >> its success. I’m very happy that we could continue on that path, by over >> time making all platforms Qt supports available as Open Source as well as >> moving over to more standard and freer licensing (first GPL, later LGPL). >> >> At the end of the Trolltech years, we started looking into how to make it >> easier for the community to contribute to Qt, and first had a model where >> our users could submit patches to us. That never really worked very well, >> and I’m really happy that we moved over to our current governance model in >> 2011. Since then Qt has truly been an Open Source project. >> When Qt got sold by Nokia in 2012, many people considered it a dead >> technology. But I and many of you believed in the technology, and together >> we’ve managed to turn this into a great success. >> >> As you all know, Qt is a dual licensed technology. That Qt has the backing >> of a commercial business behind it, is what made the required investments >> possible to keep the technology competitive. >> >> I’m extremely proud of what we achieved with Qt over the last 10 years. It >> happened because everybody on this list put in a lot of work into making Qt >> one of the best development frameworks on this planet. >> >> Qt is something that I care deeply about. I’ve been with it all the way and >> through all the ups and downs from when Trolltech got its first larger >> investment to now. But seeing what you all are doing, I know it’s in very >> good hands moving forward. >> >> >> >> Leaving The Qt Company and in the future spending most of my time outside >> the Qt ecosystem has been a difficult decision. But in the end, after those >> 25 years, it does feel very much like the right decision for me. I want to >> try out something else. >> >> So I will be joining a small Norwegian startup with one of the founders of >> Trolltech. While still in Software, it’ll be something rather different, not >> related to C++ or developer tools. >> >> >> >> So how do things continue from here? >> >> First of all, I’ll still be working for Qt until my summer vacations at the >> end of June. >> >> After that, I will have significantly less time for Qt, but I certainly >> won’t be completely gone. I will continue to read the Qt project mailing >> lists and maybe come by for events such as the Contributor or World Summit. >> Also, feel free to send me a mail at any time, I’ll try to help where I can. >> >> I will also keep my position as a maintainer for Qt Multimedia. I believe >> the module is now in a decent shape, and I should be able to spend some >> hours per week on it. >> But a few hours per week will certainly not be enough to fill the work I’m >> currently doing for Qt. So, I have decided to resign from my position as the >> Chief Maintainer of the Qt project. I’ll send more details around this in a >> separate mail. >> >> >> I’d like to thank everybody whom I’ve worked with over the years. I’ve made >> many friends in Qt and through Qt. It’s been a fantastic ride and will >> always be grateful for the time I could spend on the technology and with the >> people developing it. >> >> Cheers, >> >> Lars >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Development mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.qt-project.org/listinfo/development > _______________________________________________ Development mailing list [email protected] https://lists.qt-project.org/listinfo/development
