Devaja 

For all the gearheads around the world, the occasion of KDE's 20th birthday brings with it the traditional yet unconventional slice of our virtual birthday cake - our brand new book called 20 Years of KDE: Past, Present and Future scribbled in icing on top. Read More

There is so much about QtCon and all its diversity and enthusiasm right from the Traffic Cone hats to the Ratatouille to the parallel KDE, FSFE, Qt tracks that all of it can't be summed up even across numerous dot stories. So this article in particular aims at giving a detailed summary of some of the talks not covered in the previous dot story and a more detailed version of the lightning talks for those who prefer a quick read over watching videos. Read More

About a year ago, we talked with several people who were going to work together in Randa, Switzerland. These people were united by a love of KDE and had common motives—to make KDE technology better and have tons of fun while doing it!

The 5th edition of the Randa Meetings high in the Swiss Alps in August 2014 was a huge success, with many new features and major new additions to KDE technology, through the dedicated efforts of about 50 KDE developers taking a week out of their busy lives to bring great software to users.

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At Akademy 2015, one of the most awaited keynotes this year will be that by Matthias Kirschner and here we have a conversation with his charming self in person. Read More

Lydia Pintscher, our very own KDE e.V. Board President and a gem of a person; will be giving the Community Keynote Talk at Akademy 2015, in A Coruña, Spain. This is just a tiny peak into her brain for all that is in store for you in her talk. Read More

Building on the success of conf.kde.in 2014 at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Community Technology (DA-IICT) in the land of Gujarat, the horizon of the KDE Community is broadening and shifting south. conf.kde.in 2015 takes place on the 17th and 18th of April at Amritapuri in Kerala, India. As in previous years of the conference, conf.kde.in 2015 will promote the spirit of free and open source software (FOSS) and offer ideas to build awareness about FOSS culture at the collegiate level, the time when most technology students have their first interactions with Open Source. There will be particular emphasis on KDE technology, and on Qt, the popular cross-platform application framework.

The Venue

Amritapuri is renowned as a spiritual center, named after the humanitarian and spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi. The major university of the town, Amrita University, is known for its efforts in promoting FOSS culture among the students; an ideal place for hosting conf.kde.in 2015. The University has had extensive involvement with FOSS in the past, the latest being DebUtsav (a Debian conference) in October 2014.

About conf.kde.in

conf.kde.in started in 2011 at RVCE in Bangalore as a 5 day event with 300 participants, initiating a series of such KDE events in India. There was a KDE Meetup in 2013 and conf.kde.in 2014 at DA-IICT, which brought in members of the KDE Community from all over the world to attend the event, give talks, and share the spirit of KDE. The 2015 conference will cater to new members of KDE as well as seasoned developers, providing updates about what is going on in the KDE Community and teaching newcomers how to start making meaningful contributions. These events have been successful in attracting a lot of Indian students to mentoring programs such as Google Summer of Code (GSoC), Season of KDE and Google Code-In.

This year, the conf.kde.in 2015 organizers intend to generate even more interest and participation by creating a fertile environment for people to get started with KDE, Qt and FOSS through numerous talks, hands-on sessions and demonstrations.

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Google Summer of Code and KDE have been going hand in hand since quite a while now. The community has been responsible for initiating young students to the world of FOSS and giving them a first-hand experience of real world programming, while they hack the summers away on projects that they love under the guidance of mentors who add to the newbie’s skills and understanding of coding and give it an entire new definition. So; three months of summer turn out to be the most productive ones for students, the mentors, the KDE Developer community as well as each and every KDE user who gets to experience the first hand awesomeness of all the hard work and efforts put in by the newest additions to the KDE community. Read More

The KDE e.V. Quarterly Report for the fourth quarter of 2013 features a brief note of all the activities and events carried out, supported and funded by KDE e.V in this span of time, as well as a short overview of the major events, conferences and mentoring programs. !ll of this in one document that you should not miss out on to know about almost everything that has been KDE in those four months! Read More

conf.kde.in 2014 was held at DA-IICT (Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology) in Ghandinagar, India during the weekend of 22nd to 24th February. It was a big mashup of many different cultures with speakers and delegates from Europe, the USA and different parts of India. A platform for the exchange of ideas, and spontaneous discussions about goals and thoughts regarding open source as well as technological advancements. Also how to make paper planes.

What came before

Conf.kde.in was first organized in 2011 in Bangalore; last year a KDE India Meetup took place at DA-IICT. Both of those helped bring forth an expanded conf.kde.in 2014. The growing KDE community in India welcomed new, cheerful friends. And the open source community in India welcomed a new generation of stalwarts.

Where it was

Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), Gandhinagar is an institution of higher learning located in one of the most thriving technological hubs of western India. It has been fostering young minds in the fields of computer science and information technology for many years and features an active local community. It was the perfect location for conf.kde.in to reach out to more young minds. With the conference at the institutional level, KDE and top talent made a solid connection.

What it was all about

conf.kde.in 2014 was a fertile environment for getting people started with open source contribution, telling them about KDE technology and the community, introducing them to various applications, answering questions, and appealing to them to make the switch to open source. There were about 260 attendees for the event.

Starting

The first day - the 21st of February saw the start of the conference with a talk by Pradeepto Bhattacharya (a member of the KDE e.V. Board) on the essence of the KDE Community. That was followed by a Qt hands-on session, with the students experiencing the power of Qt by fiddling with it, rather than just listening and trying to imagine how to use it. Some people couldn't keep up with the pace, but by the end of the day, almost everyone had a fully functioning Linux system running on their laptop and was beginning to explore the power of Open Source. There was a general level of satisfaction with the learning opportunities, no matter the person's starting skill level. People's willingness to help others made a big difference.

Going deeper

The second day - on the 22nd of February there was a huge line up of talks - spread out over different realms of open source. The sessions by Sinny Kumari, Chandan Kumar, Samikshan Bairagya, Smit Shah, Shubham Chaudhary were specific to the projects they are working on—Plasma Media Center, Artikulate (the language trainer application), Localization Team Management tool, KDE Multimedia and others. There was also some informal bug solving. The point of these sessions was to introduce the students to various KDE projects, projects that students have worked on previously as a part of the Google Summer of Code, the Season of KDE and other mentoring programs. This helped them understand real life applications of coding techniques and skills, and the value of direction and guidance from mentors. It also showed them how to get started contributing to open source.The talks by Nikhil Marathe, Vishesh Handa, Siteshwar Vashisht and Shantanu Tushar Jha went deeper into specifics and covered technical details of various KDE applications. They covered topics such as memory and synchronization management with RAII, the Mer Project, Baloo (dealing with meta data and search indexing). These presentations expanded the attendees' horizons and helped them explore advanced issues and technologies.

The non-technical talks—on various facets of open source and FOSS communities—were given by Kévin Ottens and Jos Poortvliet. They talked about Free and Open Source Software and how its principles operate within the KDE Community. Their presentations emphasized the practical aspects of FOSS on KDE's work and beliefs. Conference participants got a clear view into KDE as an open source organization, further broadening their horizons.

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conf.kde.in 2014 is taking place February 21 – 23, 2014 in Gandhinagar, India. The conference is a vibrant occasion for sharing ideas, knowledge and, most importantly, support and enthusiasm for KDE and for open source. It is an event for both new and experienced technology enthusiasts. Collaboration and freedom are the main features. Read More

Google Summer of Code 2013 (GSoC) brought fifty budding new shoots and branches to the mighty KDE family tree, and the canopy of warmth and love offered by the community helped them blossom and bloom in the three months of the program. With a few snips, a little trimming and pruning, they have learned, innovated, created and contributed to one of the largest free and open source communities in the world, and have developed software that will touch many people around the world. They now have their roots firmly planted in the KDE community with the successful completion of their projects and are ready to shelter budding shoots to come! Read More

The announcement of the students accepted for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and Outreach Program for Women (OPW) 2013 opens a new chapter in KDE contribution. KDE has participated in GSoC since its first season in 2005. Every year is special and exciting for both the students and the KDE Community. Read More

KDE Meetup will be the largest KDE event in India since conf.kde.in in 2011. It will be held February 23rd and 24th at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT) in Gandhinagar. KDE Meetup will be a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in free and open software or who wants to get involved with the KDE Community. Read More

The KDE Community is proud to announce the 4.10 releases of KDE Plasma Workspaces, Applications and Development Platform. This release combines the latest technologies along with many improvements to bring users the premier collection of Free Software for home and professional use. Special thanks to the KDE Quality Team for managing a comprehensive testing program for this release. Their work greatly assisted developers and played a key role in maintaining quality and stability. The highlights of the release are presented below. The full announcement has more details and delightful screenshots. Read More