What is KDE?
Taken from the leaflet created for Linux World Expo London in October 2004.
What is KDE?
KDE is a powerful graphical environment for GNU/Linux and other Unix desktops. It turns GNU/Linux into a productive operating system by providing user-friendly applications. A KDE desktop combines ease of use, powerful functionality, outstanding graphical design and the technical superiority of Unix with the advantages of Free Software.
KDE Philosophy
KDE aims to
- create the most easy to use graphical programs for Unix
- remain usable while not hiding configuration options
- welcome all feedback and contributions, on the mailing lists and through bugs.kde.org
- be well supported, both commercially by companies such as SuSE & IBM and by the KDE user and developer community
- work with applications from other desktop environments through common standards from freedesktop.org
- promote by example software freedom by using licences such as the GNU GPL and rejecting software patents outright
KDE Features
Konqueror is KDE's web browser, file manager and document viewer. It fully supports XHTML, Java, JavaScript, CSS and SSL.
Kontact brings together the KDE groupware applications into one. Combining KMail, Korganiser, KAddress Book, KNotes and other applications to create the most powerful, consistent and user friendly personal information management suite available. Kontact supports several groupware servers including the sister project Kolab.
KOffice is an integrated office suite for KDE. It includes KWord, KSpread, KPresenter and Karbon (vector drawing). Soon to be added is Kexi, a powerful database frontend.
KDevelop is the leading GNU/Linux IDE. KDevelop 3.1 was recently released with KDE 3.3. It will allow seamless integration of development tools such as Qt Designer and, besides KDE, it supports dozens of programming platforms including Java and GNOME.
KDE offers programmers a high-performance development framework. Technologies such as KParts components, DCOP inter-process communication, a native I/O framework and XML-based GUI layout and KConfigXT make developing powerful applications easy.
Current Release Status
KDE 3.3 was released in August. It is faster, more stable and more secure. The release came full of new features and applications.
It is truly international with more languages supported than ever before, including British English.
KOffice 1.3.2 was released in July. It has many major enhancements over previous versions including OpenOffice file format filters and PDF import for KWord.
KDE 3.4 will be the next release, it is expected in early 2005. We will then begin work on KDE 4, the first major upgrade in 3 years. KDE 4 will offer us the chance to make significant improvements to the KDE platform including the multimedia system, accessibility and programming libraries.
New in KDE 3.3
Kontact 1.0 - A KDE groupware client. It combines several programmes to create an all-in-one e-mail, calendar and address book manager.
Education - KLatin to revise latin and KTurtle a Logo programming language interpreter.
JuK - KDE's simple but powerful music player now integrates with K3B to burn music CDs.
Kolourpaint - a simple and easy to use image editor
KDE Extragear
KDE Extragear applications are programs developed within KDE but released separately.
Applications include:
Amarok - a music player with more features than any other
Gwenview - Browse your photo collection, standalone or integrates with Konqueror
KNetload and KCPULoad - system monitoring utilities
Konversation - IRC chat client
Kile - Latex environment
KMPlayer - the ultimate video player including Konqueror plugin
KDiff3 - graphically view and merge differences between files
Kiosk Admin Tool - lock down the KDE environment for use in public terminals
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