Next month is FOSDEM, the largest gathering of free software developers anywhere in Europe. FOSDEM 2017 is being held at the ULB Campus Solbosch on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th of February. Thousands of coders, designers, maintainers and managers from projects as popular as Linux and as obscure as Tcl/Tk will descend on the European capital Brussels to talk, present, show off and drink beer.

KDE will have a stall in building K where we will demonstrate our latest software including KDE neon running on Docker, the newest build of Plasma Mobile using Android Open Source Project, and a very exciting mystery announcement.

Our Saturday parties have become legendary and this year's party has a new location at Le Magic Rubens in the city centre. Sign up on the wiki page if you'd like to come.

We will be taking part in the Desktop devroom on Sunday where several presenters will give talks about KDE.

Bundling KDE - Where does KDE land in the Snap and Flatpak world? by Aleix Pol Gonzalez (apol)

How we are integrating the Snap and Flatpak packaging systems into Plasma and what steps we've had to take to get KDE applications packaged and working on Flatpak and Snap.

KDE is present on different platforms, but most notably on GNU/Linux and it's here where we're seeing the most changes lately. In this presentation I'll explain how we are integrating the Snap and Flatpak packaging systems into Plasma and then what steps we've had to take to get KDE applications packaged and working on Flatpak and Snap.

From Gtk to Qt: An Strange Journey, part 2 - The continuation of the original talk from Dirk Hohndel and Linus Torvalds about the port of Subsurface from Gtk to Qt, now with mobile in mind.

by Tomaz Canabrava

As subsurface evolved from a Gtk Application to a Qt one, cutting a quarter of the codebase while still gaining new functionalities, a new question arose: "How do we get this desktop based application and run it on mobile, on a unified codebase?"

How do we take a kernel developer application writen in kernel-style code for the desktop and make it universal, able to run in any operating system be it mobile or desktop?

In this talk I'll present you piece-by-piece history on what we had when Subsurface started, the challenges that kernel hackers faced when creating a desktop application and why the choice was made to port away from Gtk into Qt - even though the main developer of subsurface back then loathed C++.

After the initial port to desktop a new era began, the era of mobile applications, and Qt had launched it's new QML language that promised good integration on mobile and even desktop with minimal effort. We wanted to give it a try. At the same time the KDE hackers launched a new project "Kirigami", a library build on QML to simplify development of QML based software. Since we were already on the bleeding edge of things, why not give it a try?

This is the tale of Subsurface, From Gtk to Qt to Mobile, from one of it's main hackers.

Kube - The next generation communication and collaboration client by Christian Mollekopf

Kube is a beautiful, modern communication in a reliable, high-performance native groupware application for your desktop, laptop and mobile devices.

Kube is a next-gen communication and collaboration client built with QtQuick on a high performance, low resource usage core. It provides online and offline access to all your mail, contacts, calendars, notes, todos and more.

With a strong focus on usability, the team works with designers and UX experts from the ground up, to build a product that is not only visually appealing but also a joy to use.

While the initial focus is on the Linux desktop, the platform is built to run on all desktop systems as well as on mobile devices.

This talk is giving an overview of what Kube is and strives to be, along with some history why this effort has been started in the first place. The talk will go into some technical detail, but is suitable for anyone interested in an alternative to the currently existing groupware clients.

With over 8000 hackers attending to particulate in hundreds of lectures FOSDEM is one of the premier conferences to collaborate with other developers and be informed about the latest developments in the free software community. We look forward to seeing you there!

Today, KDE announces the public release of Kirigami UI 2.0 !

All issues that were identified during the ten days of beta testing have been fixed, and Kirigami 2.0 is deemed ready for general use.

Soon after the initial release of Kirigami UI, KDE's framework for convergent (mobile and desktop) user interfaces, its main developer Marco Martin started porting it from Qt Quick Controls 1 to Qt Quick Controls 2, the next generation of Qt's ready-made standard controls for Qt Quick-based user interfaces. Since QQC 2 offers a much more extended range of controls than QQC 1, the port allowed the reduction of Kirigami's own code, while improving stability and performance. Kirigami 2 is kept as close to QQC 2's API as possible in order to extend it seamlessly.

Beyond the improvements that the port to QQC2 brings, further work went into Kirigami 2's performance and efficiency, and it also offers significantly improved keyboard navigation for desktop applications. On Android, Kirigami 2 integrates better visually with Material Design.

Of course there are also smaller improvements in various places, such as better handling of edge swipes in the SwipeListItem or more reliable activation of the Overscroll / Reachability mode (which pulls down the top of the page to the center of the screen where it can be reached with the thumb).

Discover (Plasma's software center), a quite complex application, has already been ported successfully to Kirigami 2 without much hassle, so we are confident that most applications can be ported easily from Kirigami 1 to Kirigami 2. Since Kirigami 2 requires Qt 5.7, which is not available on all Linux distributions yet, Kirigami 1 is still maintained (receiving fixes for critical bugs) for the time being, but won't receive any new features or improvements.

You can get Kirigami 2.0 via its wiki page, or from your distribution's repository as soon as it is packaged there.
If you want to try it out on Android, the Kirigami Gallery demo app is available on Google Play.

Thursday, 12 January 2017. Today KDE releases the beta of this year’s first Plasma feature update, Plasma 5.9. While this release brings many exciting new features to your desktop, we'll continue to provide bugfixes to Plasma 5.8 LTS.

Be even more productive

In our ongoing effort to make you more productive with Plasma we added interactive previews to our notifications. This is most noticeable when you take a screenshot using Spectacle's global keyboard shortcuts (Shift+Print Scr): you can drag the resulting file from the notification popup directly into a chat window, an email composer or a web browser form, without ever having to leave the application you're currently working with. Drag and drop was improved throughout the desktop, with new drag and drop functionality to add widgets directly to the system tray. Widgets can also be added directly from the full screen Application Dashboard launcher.

The icon widget that is created for you when you drag an application or document onto your desktop or a panel sees the return of a settings dialog: you can now change the icon, label text, working directory, and other properties. Its context menu now also sports an 'Open with' section as well as a link to open the folder the file it points to is located in.

Due to popular demand we implemented switching between windows in Task Manager using Meta + number shortcuts for heavy multi-tasking. Also new in Task Manager is the ability to pin different applications in each of your activities. And should you rather want to focus on one particular task, applications currently playing audio are marked in Task Manager similar to how it’s done in modern web browsers. Together with a button to mute the offending application, this can help you stay focused.

The Quick Launch applet now supports jump list actions, bringing it to feature parity with the other launchers in Plasma. KRunner actions, such as “Run in Terminal” and “Open containing folder” are now also shown for the KRunner-powered search results in the application launchers.

A new applet was added restoring an earlier KDE 4 feature of being able to group multiple widgets together in a single widget operated by a tabbed interface. This allows you to quickly access multiple arrangements and setups at your fingertips.

More streamlined visuals

Improvements have been made to the look and feel of the Plasma Desktop and its applications. Scroll bars in the Breeze style, for instance, have transitioned to a more compact and beautiful design, giving our applications a sleek and modern look.

Global Menus

Global Menus have returned. KDE's pioneering feature to separate the menu bar from the application window allows for new user interface paradigm with either a Plasma Widget showing the menu or neatly tucked away in the window bar.

Task Manager tooltips have been redesigned to provide more information while being significantly more compact. Folder View is now able to display file emblems which are used, for example, to indicate symlinks. Overall user experience when navigating and renaming files has been greatly improved.

More powerful Look and Feel import & export

The global Look and Feel desktop themes now support changing the window decoration as well – the 'lookandfeelexplorer' theme creation utility will export your current window decoration to the theme you create.

If you install, from the KDE store, themes that depend on other artwork packs also present on the KDE store (such as Plasma themes and Icon themes) they will be automatically downloaded, in order to give you the full experience intended by the theme creator.

New network configuration module

A new configuration module for network connections has been added to System Settings, using QML and bringing a new fresh look. Design of the module is inspired by our network applet, while the configuration functionality itself is based on the previous Connection Editor. This means that although it features a new design, functionality remains using the proven codebase.

Wayland

Wayland has been an ongoing transitional task, getting closer to feature completion with every release. This release makes it even more accessible for enthusiastic followers to try Wayland and start reporting any bugs they might find. Notable improvements in this release include:

An ability to take screenshots or use a color picker. Fullscreen users will be pleased at borderless maximized windows.

Pointers can now be confined by applications, gestures are supported (see video right) and relative motions used by games were added. Input devices were made more configurable and now save between sessions. There is also a new settings tool for touchpads.

Using the Breeze style you can now drag applications by clicking on an empty area of the UI just like in X. When running X applications the window icon will show up properly on the panel. Panels can now auto-hide. Custom color schemes can be set for windows, useful for accessibility.

Full Plasma 5.8.95 changelog

Live Images

The easiest way to try it out is with a live image booted off a USB disk. You can find a list of Live Images with Plasma 5 on the KDE Community Wiki.

Docker images also provide a quick and easy way to test Plasma.

Package Downloads

Distributions have created, or are in the process of creating, packages listed on our wiki page.

• Package download wiki page

Source Downloads

You can install Plasma 5 directly from source. KDE's community wiki has instructions to compile it. Note that Plasma 5 does not co-install with Plasma 4, you will need to uninstall older versions or install into a separate prefix.

• Source Info Page

Feedback

You can give us feedback and get updates on Facebook or Twitter or Google+.

Discuss Plasma 5 on the KDE Forums Plasma 5 board.

You can provide feedback direct to the developers via the #Plasma IRC channel, Plasma-devel mailing list or report issues via bugzilla. If you like what the team is doing, please let them know!

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Carrying on the successful tradition of conf.kde.in since 2011, we are moving to the north-east region of India for this year's conf.kde.in. Join us for conf.kde.in 2017 on 10, 11, and 12 March at Guwahati in Assam, India. conf.kde.in 2017 will focus on the promoting Free and Open source including but not limited to Qt and KDE software.

Today, KDE announces the beta release of Kirigami UI 2.0.

Soon after the initial release of Kirigami UI, KDE's framework for convergent (mobile and desktop) user interfaces, its main developer Marco Martin started porting it from Qt Quick Controls 1 to Qt Quick Controls 2, the next generation of Qt's ready-made standard controls for Qt Quick-based user interfaces. Since QQC 2 offers a much more extended range of controls than QQC 1, the port allowed the reduction of Kirigami's own code, while improving stability and performance. Kirigami 2 is kept as close to QQC 2's API as possible in order to extend it seamlessly.

Beyond the improvements that the port to QQC2 brings, further work went into Kirigami 2's performance and efficiency, and it also offers significantly improved keyboard navigation for desktop applications. On Android, Kirigami 2 integrates better visually with Material Design.

Of course there are also smaller improvements in various places, such as better handling of edge swipes in the SwipeListItem or more reliable activation of the Overscroll / Reachability mode (which pulls down the top of the page to the center of the screen where it can be reached with the thumb).

Discover (Plasma's software center), a quite complex application, has already been ported successfully to Kirigami 2 without much hassle, so we are confident that most applications can be ported easily from Kirigami 1 to Kirigami 2. Since Kirigami 2 requires Qt 5.7, which is not available on all Linux distributions yet, Kirigami 1 is still maintained (receiving fixes for critical bugs) for the time being, but won't receive any new features or improvements.

Although Kirigami 2 has of course been tested internally, this beta release allows us to make sure that the final release contains no bugs which only surface under circumstances we haven't thought of. Therefore we're happy for developers who would like to try out Kirigami 2 beta in their application and report issues they might encounter through one of our various communication channels. You can find those channels, as well as the link to the source tarball, on Kirigami's Techbase page.

The team behind The Randa Meetings is pleased to announce a community partnership with the KDE e.V. The Randa Meetings is the largest sprint organized by KDE, where roughly fifty KDE contributors meet yearly in the Swiss Alps to enjoy seven days of intense team work, pushing KDE technologies forward.

For the past years the sprints were organized by a core Swiss team and supported by the KDE community. Organizing sprints was challenging, but the result always justified the efforts. To keep the yearly sprints going and make easier the work for the Swiss core team, the Randa Meetings have now become an official KDE e.V. community partner.

This decision allows the Randa Meeting to simplify their workflows like organizing fundraising and traveling reimbursements. It removes pressure from the organizers and allows them to spend more time on the sprint and their own personal affairs like family or the building of a new house.

The Randa Meetings will continue with a yearly meeting. For 2017, the date is already set to 10 September to 16 September. This year the meetings will be focused on accessibility and personal information management (PIM). We want to make our software accessible for people with visual disabilities and also to make our software accessible from different operating systems, different devices and with different user interfaces, such as graphical with keyboard and mouse, or touch or speech and other senses.

We look forward to greeting you in 2017 and wish you all a good new year!

The KDE e.V. community report for the second half of 2015 is now available. It presents a survey of all the activities and events carried out, supported, and funded by KDE e.V. in that period, as well as the reporting of major conferences that KDE has been involved in.

Akademy, KDE's annual conference, requires a place and team for the year 2017. That's why we are looking for a vibrant, enthusiatic spot in Europe that can host us!

Have you ever felt that you wanted to give back to the KDE project? As the season of giving draws near there's never been a better time to support KDE and help the project continue to bring free software to millions of lives worldwide.

By participating in the end of year fundraiser, you can help us in our mission. Your donations are used to pay for transport and accomodation for developers to attend sprints as well as to support the server infrastructure required to keep the project running.

Donations over 30€ are eligible to recieve a cute postcard designed by KDE artists to the address of the donors choice. For more information, including more details on donation rewards, please visit the KDE End of Year 2016 Fundraising page.