"We are a community of technologists, designers, writers and advocates who work to ensure freedom for all people through our software."

KDE had a visible presence at LinuxCon 2012 in San Diego, California, August 29-31. Thanks to the Linux Foundation for donating an exhibit space to KDE.

The Conference

LinuxCon 2012 was the fourth year this annual event has taken place. Sponsored and produced by the Linux Foundation, it is a premier Linux event and attracts big names in open source, both companies and individuals. The event has a corporate feel with many leading tech companies exhibiting and their representatives making presentations.

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest:

KDE has again taken part in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) as its biggest participating organization. Fifty-nine out of mind-boggling sixty projects have been completed successfully. Lots of new things have been learned, lots of code has been written and there's been plenty of fun. GSoC is over but the code has not gone away and the work is not finished. Over the next months, many of the students will continue to be part of KDE, integrate the code for future releases, improve it, maintain it, become more part of KDE. For now, however, pencils are down and we can congratulate the students. It was a great summer and we enjoyed having you around!

Today KDE released updates for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform.
These updates are the second in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.9 series. 4.9.2 updates bring many bugfixes and translation updates on top of the latest edition in the 4.9 series and are recommended updates for everyone running 4.9.1 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. KDE’s software is already translated into more than 55 languages, with more to come.

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest:

As of now, the fund drive for the Randa Sprint has exceeded the goal. That's right, our Community generated over 10,000 € from 287 awesome supporters to make the meeting happen! The Sprint started yesterday evening; the fundraising is staying open for people who want to contribute. Follow the action on this twitter stream and here on Google Plus. And look for posts on Planet KDE (Trever said 'hi' already) about the event! There will be a comprehensive report after the Sprint.

Commence Randa hacking

The Randa sprint starts on September 21st. The fundraising drive has just a few days remaining. Randa is important to the KDE Community, which includes everyone who contributes, participates, supports and, most importantly, uses KDE software. Two key KDE developers—Aaron Seigo and Martin Gräßlin—have shared insights about Randa.

The value that KDE software delivers to millions of desktops all over the world is mind-boggling; made more so because the cost to users is zero. This is possible because the KDE Community thrives by giving, not taking. It is the epitome of Free and Open Source software. Many people donating small amounts will make a big difference. As part of the KDE Community, would you please consider donating?

A few days ago, there was a Dot story about twin brothers from Greece who will be part of Randa for the first time. In that story, Giorgos wrote about what Randa means for him personally and mentioned being inspired by his brother to be part of KDE. Below is what Antonis wrote about Randa.

21 year old twins from Greece are two of the dedicated people headed for Randa, Switzerland to work on KDE software. Giorgos and Antonis Tsiapaliokas are working on Plasmate, the KDE Software Development Kit for Plasma Workspaces. Giorgos wrote about his KDE background and what is motivating him to be part of the intensive coding in Randa.

Today KDE released updates for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform.