Qt source and object code

DropDock uses the Qt libraries, which are covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3. You have the right to modify Qt and relink DropDock against your modified version — and this page tells you exactly how to do that, rather than leaving you to work it out.

What is included, and under what licence

Component	Version	Licence
Qt Copyright © The Qt Company Ltd. and other contributors	6.10.3	GNU LGPL v3, which incorporates the GNU GPL v3
ICU Copyright © 2016 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others	72.1	Unicode License v3 (permissive)
Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime	14.44.35211.0	Microsoft redistributable terms

Verbatim copies of the LGPLv3 and the GPLv3 are distributed inside DropDock, in the legal folder beside the application, and can be read in the app itself under Control Panel → About → Licences and notices.

Why the relink happens outside the package

DropDock is distributed through the Microsoft Store as an MSIX package. Such a package is cryptographically signed by Microsoft and its contents cannot be altered in place — replacing a file inside the installed package would break that signature. So the relink happens outside the package, and this is what the LGPL provides for:

DropDock does not rely on LGPLv3 section 4(d)(1) — the “suitable shared library mechanism” option — because that option requires the application to use a copy of the library already present on your system, and DropDock ships its own copy of Qt.
DropDock relies on LGPLv3 section 4(d)(0), which is satisfied by conveying the Minimal Corresponding Source for Qt together with the “Corresponding Application Code” — defined by LGPLv3 section 0 as “the object code and/or source code for the Application”.
With that object code, and a modified Qt that is interface-compatible with version 6.10.3, you can produce a relinked DropDock executable and run it on your own computer as an ordinary application. It will not be an MSIX package, and it does not need to be.

No “Installation Information” as described in GPLv3 section 6 is supplied, because none is required: that requirement applies only where object code is conveyed in or with a “User Product”, which GPLv3 section 6 defines as consumer tangible personal property, or something designed for incorporation into a dwelling. A general-purpose computer on which you install an application is neither.

Nothing in DropDock's licence terms restricts your rights under the LGPL. Section 3 of those terms says so explicitly, and it overrides the Microsoft Standard Application License Terms for this application.

The written offer

This is a written offer under section 6b of the GNU GPL version 3, valid for three (3) years from the date on which you received your copy of DropDock, and valid for as long as we offer spare parts or customer support for that product version, whichever is longer.

It is made to any third party in possession of a copy of DropDock.

On request, and for a charge no more than the cost of physically performing the distribution, we will give you:

the complete corresponding machine-readable source code for the version of the Qt libraries distributed with your copy of DropDock, under the terms of the LGPLv3 and GPLv3; and
the Corresponding Application Code for DropDock — the object files and import libraries produced when your copy of DropDock was built, together with the exact linker command used to produce dropdock.exe and the instructions needed to relink it — in a form that permits you to recombine or relink DropDock with a modified version of Qt.

We supply the Qt source ourselves rather than pointing you at a third-party download, so that this offer does not depend on anyone else's servers.

How to request it

Write to dropdock.support@gmail.com, stating the exact DropDock version you are using. It is shown in the application under Control Panel → About.