Monday, April 21st, 2008
Ext JS 2.1 Released
Category: Ext
Ext JS 2.1 has been released. In this point release the featured changes are:
- Full REST support
- Added Ext.StatusBar Component and Samples
- Added Ext.Slider Component and Samples
- Added Example to demonstrate Remote Loading of Component Configs
- Added Grid Filtering Sample
- Added Layout Browser Sample
- Added Spotlight Sample
Even more importantly, the license has changed to a simple GPLv3 version compared to the Ext version, which some complained about. Kudos to Jack and the team for listening to the community and making this change.
4.1 rating from 102 votes
Unfortunately they also changed the license from LGPL to GPL. Something to be aware of…
A lot of people are upset about this BIG (IMHO) change…
http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33096
The license change id HUUUUGE!!!!!!!!
Why would anyone, anywhere, ever want GPL instead of LGPL especially GPL v3. This means my project will have to change to DOJO now. This is EXTREMELY upsetting. I feel totally screwed.
Well, you can still use ExtJS 2.0.2.
And if enough people are really this upset, we might be seeing a fork…
It’s kind of interesting that no Ext books are being published. Almost all other major toolkits/frameworks have some books published (e.g. jQuery, Prototype, Dojo, MooTools).
Why is this license change bad? If you are making money with your product and its gui is using Ext why not pay for a license. Good work guys keep it up.
Because the GPL is viral. The LGPL is not. If you were writing an application using the BSD license or the LGPL license and wanted to use Ext, you could do so under the old license without making any chances. Under the new license you would need to re-license your application under the GPL license. A lot of people, including me, avoid using GPL-licensed libraries for exactly this reason.
@pabs: If you just play with ExtJS you can do it at home, nobody will get harmed. If you make money with that, why not buy that licence too. If you have clients you can forward these costs to them, because I think they would understand that this is a plus for them too.
Aimos: It’s not a matter of money. What I’m concerned about is non-GPL Open Source software. The LGPL is compatible with the MIT and BSD licenses because it lacks the viral clause. I’m a fan of Ext and would like to continue using it, but I may not be able to use the newer versions because of the licensing change. As I said in my Ext forum post, Ext is a fantastic library and the developers are certainly entitled to profit from their work and to release their software under any license they see fit; it would just be a shame if I had to look for alternatives due to a license incompatibility.
And let’s not forget… =)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ext_%28javascript_library%29
http://mjg59.livejournal.com/84586.html
ptwobrussell: Thank you, that link was extremely insightful. Unfortunate for me, but still insightful.
Well..if there’s any library that deserves the money, its Ext. Still, the switch to GPL makes a huge difference (who knows, maybe they were just waiting for Ext to penetrate before dropping the bomb forcing every company to pay for it). I’d have to expect that Ext 2.0.2 is going to be around for a while, I wouldn’t be able to afford a license for personal projects and I’m not releasing my source under GPL (although I’d probably release it under another license).
Be careful !
Jack Slocum (creator of Extjs) now pretends that even 2.0.x versions of the library WERE NOT LGPL, but a mixing between proprietary, commercial and pseudo-open source but not free patchwork !
Please have a look on the forum :
http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.php?p=157744#post157744
He pretends the library HAS NEVER BEEN released under the terms of LGPL licence. It seems to be a developper trap…
Consider NOT to use this library, they change their license when they want…
Let me ask you this. I think I Read somewhere that apps that load extjs are also expected to be released under OSS licenses, and source code released… Does that mean that if we use http://www.jsloader.com to load the ext libraries, and jsloader.com is OSS’d, that it would satisfy this need?