KDE at SouthEast (US) LinuxFest

KDE was represented at the SouthEast LinuxFest again this year with a booth showing off our latest software. The Calligra Suite, Kontact, Telepathy, and Plasma Workspaces were featured. Krita particularly intrigued many people. As a result, many copies of the Comics with Krita training DVD were handed out along with the accompanying comic book, Wasted Mutants and Wisdom Mountain.

The KDE community is one of the largest and most influential Free Software communities world-wide with thousands of volunteer contributors and countless users. Most of the software written by KDE is based on the Qt toolkit. With the recent strategy changes within Nokia—the largest contributor to Qt, there is uncertainty about the future of Qt that concerns KDE. This is the position of the KDE community regarding the future of Qt:

• KDE will continue to rely on Qt and cooperate with the Qt copyright owners and contributors.
• Using the strong ties between both communities and existing formal agreements, KDE will protect the freedom of Qt and KDE where necessary.
• Continuing the KDE Frameworks 5 development process that has already begun, KDE will help improve Qt and contribute to it.

The date for the release of the next milestone in KDE's 4.x series is quickly approaching. Developers, testers and bug chasers have been busy putting the final touches on the latest version of our software, so it is once again time to get together and celebrate our community's accomplishment.

Almost all communication between KDE community members happens online, and includes people from all around the world. At Akademy, KDE people meet each other and work together in person. Virtual communication is necessary and valuable for day-to-day work; working face-to-face is much more effective. And Akademy provides much more than that.

Will Schroeder Keynote

Will Schroeder is the CEO of Kitware Inc., a company that builds open source scientific software that also depends on open source. He suggested that open source is the most effective way to get things done through agile, collaborative innovation.

Community Keynote
Agustín Benito Bethencourt

Yesterday, nearly 300 hackers grabbed their badges at the Estonian IT College in Tallinn and launched Akademy 2012. Mathias Klang's keynote, Freedom of Expression, got things going quickly with his urgent call to action for those who stand for freedom, which often disappears gradually and in a slow creep.

Some people kicked off the conference on Friday night at the pre-registration party sponsored by Intel or even arrived earlier in the week to explore Tallinn and sample Estonia's beers. During the first day of Akademy, there were sessions on release management, Plasma Active, and the future of KDE and Qt technologies.

The KDE Community is looking for a host for Akademy 2013.

Akademy is the annual gathering of the KDE Community, one of the largest in the world of Free and Open Source Software. At Akademy, KDE people gather to exchange ideas for development, plan for the future, and discuss other important issues. It is an extraordinary occasion for creativity, enthusiasm, commitment, close working relationships and innovation.

The KDE e.V. report for the first quarter of 2012 has been published. It gives an overview of the activities KDE e.V. supported during that time, including various sprints, conferences and projects. It also has a feature article by Stuart Jarvis about the ALERT Project, an initiative to improve bug resolution processes in Open Source development teams.

Read the full report today.

Tuukka Turunen - Digia Director of R&D

Digia is a Silver Sponsor of Akademy 2012 Tallinn. They are also a new supporting member of KDE e.V. Digia and KDE have a close partnership based on a common interest and commitment to Qt. Like many people in the KDE Community, I had some questions about Digia, their plans for Qt and their views of KDE. The interview with Tuukka Turunen follows.

Akademy is more than inspiring talks. It's also a place to plan, collaborate and get a lot of work done in BoFs and workshops.

This year, we have two special workshops that you won't want to miss. These events alone make Akademy 2012 well worth attending. To attend please register for free.