KDE Brand Map

This document describes the various brands used by the KDE community. It outlines the relationship of the brands and gives some guidance how to use them. These brands are meant for communication to users. They are not necessarily related to names of SVN modules, package names, or how application names are used internally by the contributors community.

Umbrella brand

The brand "KDE" stands for the KDE community, also used as "KDE Community" or "KDE Team". It acts as umbrella brand for the sub brands used for naming applications, application suites, or sub communities. KDE as a brand transports the KDE values such as freedom, technical excellence, beauty, pragmatism, portability, open standards, international collaboration, professionalism, respect, and great teamwork.

Products

Software created by the KDE community is branded on its own under the umbrella brand of KDE. Use of "KDE" in the product name is optional and depending on the context. Especially for the names which are not recognizable as KDE applications because they don't use a K as prefix in their name it's recommended to use "KDE" in the product name.

KDE Applications

KDE applications make up the breadth and richness of the KDE universe. They are solutions to specific use cases. KDE applications can run independently of the KDE workspace and can freely be mixed with applications based on other platforms and toolkits.

"Okular" or "KDE Okular"
"Dolphin" or "KDE Dolphin"
"Amarok"
"Krita" or "KDE Krita"
"KWord"
"KPresenter"
"KDE Kontact" or "Kontact"
"KDevelop"
"Plasmate" or "KDE Plasmate"
"KSysguard"
"K3B"
...

KDE Application Suites

There are a couple of brands which are used to identify application suites built up from several applications. These can be used just like application names when referring to a set of related applications as bundled under the application suite brand. Those brands are sometimes also used to refer to a subcommunity.

"KOffice" (KWord, Krita, ...)
"KDE Kontact" or "Kontact" (KMail, KOrganizer, KAddressbook, ...)
"KDE Edu"

KDE Workspaces

KDE provides workspaces. These provide the environment for running and managing applications and integrate interaction of applications. The workspaces are designed as generic environment for all kind of desktop applications, not only applications built on the KDE platform. They integrate best with applications following the standards used by the KDE platform. There are different flavors of the workspace to address the needs of specific groups of users or adapt to specific hardware platforms.

"Plasma Desktop" or "KDE Plasma Desktop". This is the workspace for desktop computers. It's built on the classical paradigm of a "desktop environment". Its components are KWin, KDM, Plasma desktop shell, KSysguard and System Settings. The components are not marketed to end users.
"Plasma Netbook" or "KDE Plasma Netbook". This is the workspace for computers with a small display, e.g. Netbooks.
"Plasma Mobile" or "KDE Plasma Mobile". This is the workspace for small devices, e.g. phones, which also provide a special environment like touch screens.

KDE Platform

KDE Software is based on the "KDE Platform", the base of libraries and services which are needed to run KDE applications. Especially when including development frameworks and tools it is referred to as "KDE Development Platform". It's built on a number of Pillars (Akonadi, Solid, Nepomuk, Phonon, Plasma, ...), distinct parts of the development platform. The pillars are not marketed to end users.

KDE Software Compilation

The KDE community does regular releases of a core set of KDE software components. These releases are called "KDE Software Compilation" and tagged with a version number, e.g. "The KDE community is releasing the KDE Software Compilation 4.4".

People

The KDE community consists of several sub communities, teams working on a specific part of KDE software. They use names which partly also have a unique identity as a brand. Some of the teams share the name with the application or the application suite they work on. These names are important for keeping the identity of the teams, but they are not marketed to end users.

KDE Bug Squad
KDE Promo
KDE PIM
KOffice
Amarok Team
KDE Edu
...