Qt 5.15 Released With Graphics Improvements, Preparations Ahead Of Qt 6

[bug77]

Actually I would not be so sure about that. They explicitely write, "This means open-source users will receive patch-level releases of 5.15 until the next minor release will become available," and 6.0 ist not a minor release. It also does not qualify as a direct replacement of a minor release because it is breaking compatibility.

As right now there are no plans for another 5.x release, I would expect 5.15 to stay the last minor release of the 5 series with indefinite patches ;-)

It could be, I'm not big on legalese
Tbh, users of rolling releases jump on the latest Qt release every time. They did not benefit from LTS support anyway. This will hurt conservative distros, but the silver lining could be they are now pushed towards shipping more recent Qt versions; users win by getting more up to date packages, Qt Company wins by getting more feedback on their changes.
Not a win-win, losing support is always a bummer. But if Qt Company needed to cash in on something, this may be the most harmless way of doing that.

[ypnos]

That means 5.15 will be available as usual, but it won't receive public patches once the next version (probably 6.0 in this case) is released.

Actually I would not be so sure about that. They explicitely write, "This means open-source users will receive patch-level releases of 5.15 until the next minor release will become available," and 6.0 ist not a minor release. It also does not qualify as a direct replacement of a minor release because it is breaking compatibility.

As right now there are no plans for another 5.x release, I would expect 5.15 to stay the last minor release of the 5 series with indefinite patches ;-)

[board]

From your link:


That means 5.15 will be available as usual, but it won't receive public patches once the next version (probably 6.0 in this case) is released.

Lo and behold, 5.15 is actually available: https://www.qt.io/offline-installers

Yes, I noticed earlier that my post initially could've caused a misunderstanding. I've already edited it to clarify that it's a normal update for us.

But thank you for pointing it out regardless.

[bug77]

The LTS updates from 5.15 onward will not be free. But I do agree with your first point. We will likely see 5.15 packaged alongside version 6 in the future, just like how we have 4 and 5 now. But it'll be up to the community to back-port fixes this time.

From your link:

Starting with Qt 5.15, long term support (LTS) will only be available to commercial customers. This means open-source users will receive patch-level releases of 5.15 until the next minor release will become available. This means that we will handle Qt 5.15 in the same way as e.g. 5.13 or 5.14 for open source users.

That means 5.15 will be available as usual, but it won't receive public patches once the next version (probably 6.0 in this case) is released.

Lo and behold, 5.15 is actually available: https://www.qt.io/offline-installers

[board]

6 will bring major changes that will require a lot of time and effort to accommodate. 5.15 is an LTS version, so it is not the worst place to get stuck for a while... or forever in some cases. The community is not exactly thrilled by the qt management...

The LTS updates from 5.15 onward will not be free, 5.15 will be like a normal update for us. But I do agree with your first point. We will likely see 5.15 packaged alongside version 6 in the future, just like how we have 4 and 5 now. But it'll be up to the community to back-port fixes this time.

[bug77]

But that does not explain why there is qtwebkit and gtkwebkit. Why don't they use one of the two libs and maintain their own fork?

I thought it explains it perfectly: different needs, different priorities.
I'm pretty sure they're both upstreaming where it makes sense and keep customizations to a minimum. Otherwise it would be pretty hard to keep up.

[cl333r]

It took at least a year for Qt 5 to be stable enough to serve as a usable replacement. Get ready to use this one for a while.

More like 5 years, at least, because one's project needs to wait on all other projects it depends on to transition too, and those projects could be in same situation, catch 22?

[ZeroPointEnergy]

Qt WebKit? What are you talking about? That has been dead for years (except for an updated community fork, but that's not Qt's responsibility). QtWebEngine is what replaced it and is based on Blink, which is a WebKit fork. So QtWebEngine and GTKWebKit could never use the same lib as they both have a different base.

Yeah I don't really care whos responsibility it is. I was just complaining about the fact that each of this projects bring with them a complete fork of webkit in their sources and don't depend on an upstream lib. And the question is: why is that?

[Setif]

They don't offer installers, only source code.

http://download.qt.io/archive/qt/5.15/5.15.0/

[Vistaus]

But that does not explain why there is qtwebkit and gtkwebkit. Why don't they use one of the two libs and maintain their own fork?

Qt WebKit? What are you talking about? That has been dead for years (except for an updated community fork, but that's not Qt's responsibility). QtWebEngine is what replaced it and is based on Blink, which is a WebKit fork. So QtWebEngine and GTKWebKit could never use the same lib as they both have a different base.