On 23/12/2008, at 7:59 AM, John Huss wrote:
Doesn't matter which project, because both leverage the EXT library. LGPL means that you can't use it for commerical development, unless you want to give away your source code. There has been a lot of arguing over the license, but the opinion of the EXT developers is that you need to pay them if you aren't writing an open source app.
Actually LGPL doesn't require you to release your source code, it requires you to release any changes you make to the underlying LGPL code, but not the rest of your application. It is intended for use with libraries and frameworks. The GPL on the other hand requires that derived works also be GPL and therefore you make the source available. The legal sticking point with using GPL on libraries and frameworks is whether something is considered a derived work or not.
Ext-JS was originally licensed under the LGPL, it was later changed to GPL. This was cause for a lot of unrest in the Ext-JS community because it meant that the framework couldn't be used as before by commercial users without risk of violating the GPL.
Ext-GWT is native GWT rather than a wrapper around Ext-JS, and is released by the people that produce Ext-JS and is also released under the GPL. The gwt-ext is a wrapper around the last version of Ext-JS that was released as LGPL, so it is unencumbered by the more liberal use of the GPL in the official EXT products.
The reason for the license changing from LGPL to GPL was apparently entirely driven by a business model decision. There was no compelling incentive for commercial users to license the product when it was LGPL.