The KDE Community

The KDE Community is an international team co-operating on development and distribution of Free, Open Source Software for desktop and portable computing. Our community has developed a wide variety of applications for communication, work, education and entertainment. We have a strong focus on finding innovative solutions to old and new problems, creating a vibrant, open atmosphere for experimentation. Since KDE is open-source, everyone can play a part in contributing to KDE.

Software produced by KDE

For users on Linux and Unix, KDE offers a full suite of user workspace applications which allow interaction with these operating systems in a modern, graphical user interface. This includes Plasma Desktop, KDE's innovative desktop interface. Other workspace applications are included to aid with system configuration, running programs, or interacting with hardware devices. While the fully integrated KDE Workspaces are only available on Linux and Unix, some of these features are available on other platforms.

How to connect with mentors via IRC

Mentors are the main people you communicate with while completing a task. They are the people whom you ask when you have any questions to ask regarding the task. You can communicate with them via IRC, a chat system. You can use webchat.freenode.net in your browser for now, but you may want to consider using a desktop IRC client later on. There are plenty of IRC networks out there, but the recommended one is Freenode as most open-source projects have channels there. To chat in IRC just type and hit [enter]. Commands begin with the "/" character, such as /connect irc.freenode.net to connect to Freenode if you've not already done so.

IRC is made of channels (think, "chat rooms") which start with a pound sign, such as "#CopyleftGames". On Freenode, you can expect to find a channel for almost any FOSS project, eg, #Fedora, #Python, #Ubuntu. To join a channel, use the /join command, eg, /join #KDE

IRC Clients

IRC clients communicate with IRC web servers to allow sending of messages from one user to another. Hence, you have to download an IRC client. Some examples of IRC clients are XChat and IRSSI for Linux or Windows, and Colloquy for Mac.

Creating an identity account

You can register for an account on Freenode and your username should be similar to the one you use to access Melange. This will facilitate communication between you and your mentors. Please visit the link below to learn more about creating identity accounts.

Freenode FAQ