“Contrary to earlier reports, Borland/Inprise will not release
its anticipated Kylix integrated development environment (IDE)
under an open source software license. Rather, CLX, the underlying
component library, will be released under a dual license, allowing
open source developers to code under the GPL or commercial
developers to purchase a commercial license.”
“According to Borland/Inprise’s Ted Shelton, Senior Vice
President of Business Development, earlier reports elsewhere that
the Kylix IDE itself would be released as open source software are
flatly wrong. A similar strategy is pursued by TrollTech with their
QT/X11 and QT/Embedded toolkits. The CLX components will be usable
from any environment, regardless of whether interested developers
choose to purchase Kylix, and command line tools will be provided
for their use.”
“Kylix is one of the more anticipated projects in the Linux
community. According to Borland/Inprise’s Michael Swindell,
Director of Product Management, demand for a Linux version of
Borland’s Delphi has been overwhelming, often outstripping calls
for ports of Windows desktop software in several surveys. Shelton
said the demand for the product is due in large part to the fact
that many Linux developers “cut their teeth” on Borland products
and are eager to return to a familiar environment.”