KDE/Vision/Drafts/A

So, were would we like to see KDE in 5 years, i.e. 2020 ?

A great community

In 2020 KDE will be a community of free software enthusiasts that develops graphical user interfaces and applications for end-user for all types of computers across the device spectrum: desktops PCs, laptops, tablet, smartphones, etc.

We believe that software should be free and respectful of the privacy of our users. Our users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Our software uses latest encryption algorithms, and comes without any backdoors, hidden monitoring, or data collection.

To achieve our goals we work on:

I mentioned Qt here because this is what we have been doing since KDE started, and since we don't have a plan to port away from it to anything else. Why hide our experience in this field ? (Alex N)
Since this point covers what "KDE" by definition now is (a community), this seems to be the heart of the proposed VisionA. (the following points are then visions by itself for the individual projects like KF5, Plasma Shell Desktop/Mobile, KDE Applications, etc., which are interesting by themselves, but imo not in the broader KDE sense). Therefore if one only looks at this point as the main vision, you see it is exclusive and narrow as it only picks out and mentions specifically "graphical user interfaces typically using Qt" (which can be good or not so good depending on what we as a community want the vision and focus to be, so I am not judging here). So with the premise that any following points are not part of the definiton of "KDE" as in the community, but concrete project visions, this should be the main point discussed and focused on. (Clemens Toennies)
Some nice words about free software, freedom of the user, respecting the privacy, etc. should be added. (Alex N)

A modern desktop for UNIX operating systems

We provide a classical desktop environment for personal computers running Linux or any other UNIX-compatible operating system, as known from KDE 3 and Plasma. It delivers a polished user experience, is easy to use and flexible..

that's basically the original vision from Matthias Ettrich (Alex N)
with "PCs" I mean workstations, desktop PCs and notebooks (Alex N)
I excluded Windows and OSX on purpose, those have native desktops, trying to replace them won't fly (it didn't for the last years) (Alex N)

A user interface for mobile/embedded Linux systems (or leave that out ?)

In 2020, we want KDE to offer the most advanced "desktop" for "mobile Linux", like tablets, smartphones or embedded systems.

not sure about this one. No such platform currently really exists. (Alex N)
Should this include stuff like TVs, in-car/plane-entertainment systems, technical/industrial user interfaces ? Or just things like RPi ?
Should this target mainly the hacker community ? Or also commercial use ? (Alex N)
Firefox OS is dead for mobile, no need to mention it (J. Staniek)

A complete set of cross-platform end-user applications

In 2020 we want to offer a complete set of end-user applications running on all major operating systems (Linux, OSX, Windows, Android, etc.). This way we enable end-users to manage their "digital life" using free software no matter on which operating system. The set of applications covers internet, office, communication, multimedia, games and many other.

These provide the familiar and consistent KDE user experience while fully integrating into the host operating system.

Consistency and integration between applications is reached by following common guidelines and using common technologies.

This also means users should not have to install a system similar to cygwin, but the KDE applications should feel like normal applications for each platform. (Alex N)
Should we mention/target also iOS and Windows Phone ? (Alex N)

A cross-platform Software Development Kit

We build on top of the cross-platform Qt framework and provide an extensive set of addon libraries and components to do the tasks above. These libraries are cross-platform, stable, and provide source and binary compatibility guarantees. They are licensed under a Free Software license, which allows commercial use.