KDE
Stuff to sort through
This page is for documentation affecting the entire KDE community, or for things that don't really belong elsewhere.
Finding something to contribute
If you are looking for something to work on in KDE, the following pages may be of help:
- Finding the Unloved, a list of KDE Projects or Applications that are looking for help or are currently unmaintained
- Missing Applications, a list of applications that KDE is missing.
- Junior Jobs are bug fixes and small features that have been identified as a good way to get involved with an existing project.
Historic Information
Binary packages
A non comprehensive list of distributions providing pre-compiled binary packages can be found at KDE_SC/Binary_Packages
Stuff that should probably go on the main website
KDE Projects
As mentioned above, there is a lot of KDE Software. You may already have a project in mind that you want to help with, in which case it is helpful to know where it fits in the overall structure of KDE Software. If you haven't chosen a specific project, knowing this structure will help you start your search for where to begin contributing.
KDE Software is divided into three main Products:
The Frameworks are the libraries that underpin all the other KDE Software. Almost all KDE Software is built on Qt, a C++ framework and GUI toolkit. The Frameworks provide additional functionality on top of Qt, and are used both within and outside KDE.
KDE Plasma is KDE's desktop environment. Applications built on top of Qt and KDE Frameworks will integrate well with KDE Plasma, but they will also integrate with other desktops. Plasma will also attempt to help other applications (such as GTK-based ones) integrate with it.
Most other KDE projects are applications that come under the KDE Applications umbrella. This contains several coherent groups, such as KDE Education, KDE Games, the Calligra Suite and the Kontact Suite.
Each of these Products has its own release cycle. For example, a new version of the Frameworks is released every month. KDE also has other projects that are not part of the above Products. These can be divided into the following groups:
- Extragear contains stable software (often applications) that have their own release cycles, separate from the above major Products.
- Playground contains software that is not yet stable.
- Review projects are waiting to move into one of the three main Products, or from Playground to Extragear.
- Unmaintained projects are no longer worked on.
- Sysadmin and Website projects are used to help manage KDE infrastructure.
The KDE Manifesto
We are a community of technologists, designers, writers and advocates who work to ensure freedom for all people through our software. Because of this work we have come to value: open governance, free software, inclusivity, innovation, common ownership, and an end user focus. For details see the full KDE Manifesto at https://manifesto.kde.org/index.html
This manifesto is inspired by the Agile and Software Craftmanship manifestos.
Benefits of a KDE Project
Being part of the international KDE community conveys certain benefits:
- To stand on the shoulders of giants
- Make use of KDE infrastructure for project hosting
- Benefit from the experience of the KDE sysadmins
- Get support from the larger community with development, documentation, translation, testing, bug handling, etc.
- Use opportunities to integrate with a large ecosystem of end-user products
- Interaction with teams that have common values, leading to the cross-pollination of ideas and innovations
- Enjoy representation and support by KDE e.V.
- Participate in Akademy and other KDE events
- Receive financial and organizational support
- Know that your trademarks can be secured
- Know that your licensing wishes can be protected via the Fiduciary Licensing Agreement
- Increase your visibility through the reputation of the KDE community and KDE promotion tools such as:
- pushing project announcements to the Dot and employing other KDE promotion channels
- having your project reachable through a subdomain under kde.org
- having a #kde-<projectname> IRC channel on the Libera Chat network
- using KDE as an umbrella brand to associate with the KDE community for communication on web sites and other channels
Commitments of a KDE Project
The KDE Project designation carries with it certain commitments:
- Respect the KDE Code of Conduct
- Support the KDE Vision and KDE Mission
- There is no mandatory Contributor License Agreement
- Technical requirements
- The project stays true to established practices common to similar KDE projects
- All source materials are hosted on infrastructure available to and writable by all KDE contributor accounts
- Online services associated with the project are either hosted on KDE infrastructure or have an action plan that ensures continuity which is approved by the KDE system administration team
- Copyrights, trademarks and patents
- KDE licensing policy are respected
- KDE branding guidelines are respected
- If the authors of the software abandon it or disappear, they agree to transfer the trademark to the next maintainer
- If the code is covered by patents registered by the project itself, those patents must be licensed freely