KDE.news 

KDE is thrilled to announce the first at-large version of KDE neon User Edition.

KDE neon User Edition 5.6 installer

KDE neon User Edition 5.6 is based on the latest version of Plasma 5.6 and intends to showcase the latest KDE technology on a stable foundation. It is a continuously updated installable image that can be used not just for exploration and testing but as the main operating system for people enthusiastic about the latest desktop software.

Today we kick off the third Krita kickstarter! It's beginning to become a tradition. Last year, our Kickstarter backers funded the development of performance improvements and animation support -- and a bunch of other features. Right now, we're still working on finishing up the Krita 3.0 release before we implement the last of the stretch goals you all helped fund last year.

Featured Article – conf.kde.in 2015

The featured article covers a bit of conf.kde.in history and how it brought together nearly 300 students in its 2015’s edition. It presents an overview of conf.kde.in 2015 keynotes, information regarding the many talks about all sort of KDE projects presented at the conference, and details about the lab sessions devoted to game development with Qt and QML. The article concludes with some thoughts on the KDE presence in India and its massive potential for raising new contributors.

Kai Uwe Broulik reports from open source conference Augsburger Linux-Tag which happened in Bavaria last weekend.

On Saturday, 16 April I had the honor of representing KDE at the <a href="http://luga.de/Aktionen/LIT-2016">15. Augsburger Linux-Tag</a>, one of the oldest and largest Linux gatherings in southern Germany.

Konqi guarding the KDE booth

It was my first time attending such an event and it was a great experience. With me I had a computer running the latest and greatest <a href="http://neon.kde.org/">KDE neon</a> with <a href="https://www.kde.org/announcements/plasma-5.6.0.php">Plasma 5.6</a> – hooked up to a gorgeous 4K monitor. In addition to that I brought a Nexus 5 running <a href="http://plasma-mobile.org/">Plasma Mobile</a> and an infrared remote control for browsing Plasma Media Center.
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The place was quite busy and due to lots of talks and presentations going on, people stopped by in batches usually. Feedback on the new Breeze look and feel of Plasma 5 was overwhelmingly positive, kudos to the <a href="https://vdesign.kde.org/">VDG</a> and everyone involved in making this software masterpiece. Critics of our “flat design” were happy to hear that we continue to ship Oxygen style and icons, enabling you to visually turn Plasma 5 into Plasma 4 with ease.
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The common architecture between desktop and phone was easily illustrated by common widgets

Plasma Mobile did its job well, getting people excited about the possibilities to come: having a full-fledged KRunner on a phone, deep KDE Connect integration, a full Linux-stack underneath, and more.
 
<a href="https://dot.kde.org/2016/03/30/kde-proudly-presents-kirigami-ui">Kirigami</a> UI concepts, especially the ability to go “forward” rather than just back, were well-received and made people look forward to our gesture-driven user interface.
 
Skeptics of Plasma Mobile were relieved to hear that Plasma Mobile – which is running Wayland rather than X – helped our Wayland adoption on the desktop and resources spent there benefit the entire Plasma stack.
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Three input concepts, touch, keyboard, few-buton remote control; easily served using Plasma technology

Augsburg visitors ranged from a 5 year old running across the hallway yelling “how cuuuuute” Konqi is, to an elderly man proudly telling his story about how he recently switched from Windows to Linux and enjoys using Plasma and KDE Applications. I then showed him how easily he could get a full screen application launcher he got used to from his old operating system (Right-click Kickoff → “Alternatives” →  “Application Dashboard”).
 
There were also quite a few users of alternative desktop environments and window managers who were glad to be able to use KDE software, such as KWin, Kate, Dolphin, outside a full Plasma session.
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Browsing Plasma Media Center using the input device it was designed for.

In the afternoon I came across a guy from LiMux, a project by the city of Munich to migrate their software systems to free and open-source software, who are using Plasma for their desktop computers. He illustrated some of the challenges they’re facing with Plasma in such a large enterprise deployment with a sheer number of novice users. We got invited to the <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2016/05/de/Munich">LiMux Hackfest</a> in May where we will work together to prepare Plasma 5 for the requirements they have.
 
In conclusion, I can say the day was a success: we got lots of comments, feedback, and praise, and I am looking forward to attending this and other similar events in the future.
 
Special thanks to Ingo Blechschmidt of Hochschule Augsburg for inviting us and Jonathan Riddell for sending me his KDE stand-up display!

Hard at work

Like a routine now, the KDE PIM spring sprint was held in Toulouse again, first week of April at Ekito's city center office, many thanks to them.

KDE contributors showing their personal visions at Akademy 2015

KDE is a highly diverse community and every one of our contributors has his or her own motives, such as having fun, developing new skills and meeting nice people. However, a common desire unites all of KDE: to change the world for the better. This shared motivation, although the major driving force behind KDE, has never really been made explicit.

QtCon 2016 Call for Papers is open. The event will assemble KDE Akademy, VideoLAN Developer Days, Qt Contributors' Summit, FSFE Summit and KDAB Qt training day. We invite contributors to these projects to present their work and insight at QtCon 2016. The conference will take place from 1st to 8th September in Berlin, Germany. The talks will be from 2nd to 4th with KDE continuing with BoFs till the 8th

Kirigami UI isn't just a set of components, it's also a philosophy: It defines precise UI/UX patterns to allow developers to quickly develop intuitive and consistent apps that provide a great user experience. Some concepts are: Actions are available in two drawers and additionally through some shortcuts (buttons or swipes); actions and options are distinguished into global ones and contextual ones, put in two different drawers in the opposite vertical sides of the screen; app's content is organized in pages that you can browse through with horizontal swipes. The Kirigami Components for smartphones are optimized to allow easy navigation and interaction with just one hand, making it ideal for using applications casually "on the move". Kirigami UI is not only for smartphone applications, however: It will allow to create convergent applications, which are not simply the exact same user interface scaled to different sizes, but morphing between optimized interfaces based on the input method and screen size, changing as the context changes (e.g. flipping over a convertible, docking a phone). Another important concept is non-invasive pop-ups to undo an action, rather than confirmation dialogs.

In March, the yearly meeting of KDE's Plasma team was held in Geneva, kindly hosted by the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN). In-person meetings provide unique opportunities to work together face-to-face, at high bandwidth to tackle problems together and plan for the future. As there were some other groups present during this meeting, notably the visual design group and the Wiki cleanup team, there was ample opportunity to think outside of the Plasma box.

KDE Plasma 5.6

Tuesday, 22 March 2016. Today KDE releases a feature-packed new version of its desktop user interface, Plasma 5.6.