LessTif: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

LessTif is a reimplementation or clone of the Motif computer programming toolkit. LessTif is developed by the Hungry Programmers. It aims to be a compatible free software replacement for Motif.

As opposed to Motif, which is distributed under a proprietary license that can require the payment of royalties, LessTif is distributed under the LGPL, a less restrictive free license, which makes LessTif more attractive to many developers, distributors and users. The license of Motif was the main motivation for the development of LessTif.

LessTif aims for full source and binary compatibility with Motif. While this has not yet been achieved, many Motif applications run with LessTif and/or can be compiled with it.

After the release of Open Motif there is now a second alternative to replace Motif for open source applications. Still, since Open Motif is not itself Open Source software, the development of LessTif continues.