2017 marks the first full year of the KDE Advisory Board's existence (it was established in September 2016). We had three video calls, and met with three members of the Advisory Board (Tobias and Max from LiMux and Gerry from Canonical) in person at Akademy, where they were equally happy about the enthusiastic, open, and professional atmosphere. We have moved to a bi-monthly schedule for the board calls in order to keep everyone in a close loop. During our calls, we discussed a wide range of topics. Those included the KDE Community Goals initiative, which was received with a lot of interest by the Advisory Board members. They consider it a useful tool that will provide direction to the community. We talked about the Librem 5 phone project, which the FSF is especially interested in, as they want to see how close it can get to the goal of being a fully Free device.
-Our discussions also included the search for a modern chat solution; a shared interest with The Document Foundation, as they are also searching for one; and the events to which our partners invited us, or we invited them. In October, we were delighted to welcome Private Internet Access as a new KDE Patron and Christel Dahlskjear as their representative (with Christian Loosly as the contact on KDE's side) to the Advisory Board. We look forward to another year of collaboration with our friends and Patrons.
+2017 marks the first full year of the KDE Advisory Board's existence (it was established in September 2016). We had three video calls, and met with three members of the Advisory Board (Tobias and Max from LiMux and Gerry from Canonical) in person at Akademy. They were equally happy about the enthusiastic, open, and professional atmosphere. We have moved to a bi-monthly scheduled call for the board to keep everyone informed. We discussed a wide range of topics during our calls. They included the KDE Community Goals initiative, which was received with a lot of interest by the Advisory Board members. They consider it a useful tool that will provide direction to the community. We discussed the Librem 5 phone project, which the FSF is especially interested in, as they want to see how close it can get to the goal of being a fully free device.
+Our discussions also included the search for a modern instant messaging solution; a shared interest with The Document Foundation, as they are also searching for one. In October, we welcome Private Internet Access as a new KDE Patron and Christel Dahlskjear as their representative (with Christian Loosly as the contact on KDE's side) to the Advisory Board. We look forward to another year of collaboration with our friends and Patrons.
The 2017 edition of Akademy was held in Almería, Spain. Starting officially on the 22nd of July and ending on the 27th, the weekend was dedicated to talks, as is customary. The rest of the following week, from Monday to Thursday, was dedicated to workshops and BoFs — Birds of a Feather — sessions in which community members interested in the same things meet and work together. This year's event attracted over 110 attendees. Attendees traveled mainly from Europe, but also from North and South America, and Asia. Over the weekend, visitors were able to attend over 40 different talks on all kinds of topics, ranging from developing applications for mobile phones to best ways for collaboration between communities.
+The 2017 edition of Akademy was held in Almería, Spain. Starting officially on the 22nd of July and ending on the 27th, the weekend was dedicated to talks. The rest of the week was dedicated to workshops and BoFs — Birds of a Feather — sessions in which community members interested in the same things meet and work together. This year's event attracted over 110 attendees. Attendees traveled mainly from Europe, but also from North and South America, and Asia. Over the weekend, visitors were able to attend over 40 different talks on all kinds of topics, ranging from developing applications for mobile phones to best ways for collaboration between communities.
The overhaul of this policy had already been discussed at some length on KDE's Community mailing list, but the conversation hadn't reached a satisfactory conclusion. However, a few hours of face-to-face negotiation led to an acceptable solution which Jonathan Riddell announced on Wednesday in the half-day wrap-up session. On the non-technical front, there were all-important discussion on how to make KDE technologies more accessible to end users, and how to make the community more open to potential contributors. Improving communication aimed at non-technical users, reaching out and cooperating with other communities, and implementing policies that promote inclusiveness were some of the areas participants pledged to work on.
+The overhaul to this policy was discussed at some length on KDE's Community mailing list, but the conversation didn't reach a satisfactory conclusion. After a few hours of face-to-face negotiation led to an acceptable solution which Jonathan Riddell announced on Wednesday in the half-day wrap-up session. On the non-technical front, there were all-important discussion on how to make KDE technologies more accessible to end users, and how to make the community more open to potential contributors. Improving communication aimed at non-technical users, reaching out and cooperating with other communities, and implementing policies that promote inclusiveness were some of the areas participants pledged to work on.
From Monday to Thursday, Akademy was dedicated to BoFs and workshops where a specific topic or area is focused on. For most participants, this part is a primary motivation for attending Akademy, since it gives them the chance to sit down with their colleagues in the flesh. They can discuss and code together without having to relay messages over email or IRC. Each day attendees met, discussed, and worked side by side, pushing KDE forward. One of the hottest topics was Plasma. Plasma is KDE's graphical desktop and mobile environment. Dedicating a large chunk of the meetings to Plasma makes perfect sense. Although most KDE apps work on a wide range of platforms (including Windows, MacOS and Android), the first platform KDE developers would want to target is their own. With as much time dedicated to mobile frameworks, such as Kirigami and Halium, as to Plasma on desktop computers, it is clear the developers are very seriously committed to the effort of taking over smartphones and breaking the Android/iOS duopoly. KDE developers know very well that a rich software catalogue is essential to attract end users, hence many of the talks and BoFs where dedicated to app development.
+From Monday to Thursday, Akademy was dedicated to BoFs and workshops. This part is a primary motivation for attending Akademy, since it gives them the chance to sit down with their colleagues in the flesh. They can discuss and code together without having to relay messages over email or IRC. One of the hottest topics was Plasma. Plasma is KDE's graphical desktop and mobile environment. Dedicating a large chunk of the meetings to Plasma makes perfect sense. Although most KDE apps work on a wide range of platforms (including Windows, MacOS and Android), the first platform KDE developers would want to target is their own. With as much time dedicated to mobile frameworks, such as Kirigami and Halium, as to Plasma on desktop computers, it is clear the developers are very seriously committed to the effort of taking over smartphones and breaking the Android/iOS duopoly. KDE developers know very well that a rich software catalog is essential to attract end users, hence many of the talks and BoFs where dedicated to app development.
There were slots on how to port applications to the upcoming Wayland display server protocol which, like winter, is definitely coming someday. Aleix Pol dedicated time to explaining how developers could package apps for Flatpak, a universal packaging system for all GNU/Linux distributions. Scattered throughout the week were also several sessions and talks about QML, Qt 3D, and other KDE-related technologies. As for the steps the applications should actually go through — from concept to working utility on the desktop or your phone's screen — during Akademy 2017 the community reached an agreement on the new Applications Lifecycle Policy.
+There were slots on how to port applications to the upcoming Wayland display server protocol which, like winter, is definitely coming someday. Aleix Pol dedicated time to explaining how developers could package apps for Flatpak, a universal packaging system for all GNU/Linux distributions. Scattered throughout the week were also several talks about QML, Qt 3D, and other KDE-related technologies. As for the steps the applications should actually go through — from concept to working utility on the desktop or your phone's screen — during Akademy 2017 the community reached an agreement on the new Applications Life-cycle Policy.
This was another solid Akademy. Knowledge was shared, agreements reached, and code got written. Even though the KDE community discussed a wide variety of topics, there was clearly a common underlying theme of how members of KDE want to shape the world of tech to their vision — the vision of a world in which everyone has control over their digital life and enjoys freedom and privacy. After this year's hot Andalusian sun, Akademy will be moving next year to the heart of Europe: Vienna. See you there in 2018!
+This was another solid Akademy. Knowledge was shared, agreements reached, and code got written. Even though the KDE community discussed a wide variety of topics, there was clearly a common underlying theme of how members of KDE want to shape the world of tech to their vision — the vision of a world in which everyone has control over their digital life and enjoys freedom and privacy. After last year's hot Andalusian sun, Akademy will be moving in 2018 to the heart of Europe: Vienna. See you there!
At Akademy 2017 in Almeria, Spain, the Vvave Media Player project was presented to the KDE community for the first time. Vvave is not intended to be yet another music player. Instead, the idea is to create a content-aware multimedia application that makes use of a music information retrieval (MIR) system and relies on AI techniques to recommend new music to its users. With Vvave, users will be able to discover and rediscover their own music collections by managing them contextually.
+At Akademy 2017 in Almeria, Spain, the Vvave Media Player project was presented to the KDE community for the first time. Vvave is not intended to be yet another music player. Instead, the idea is to create a content-aware multimedia application that makes use of a Music Information Retrieval (MIR) system and relies on AI techniques to recommend new music to its users. With Vvave, users will be able to discover and rediscover their own music collections by managing them contextually.
Ultimately, Vvave would be a convergent music player with tons of features that allows connecting different devices. There are plans to integrate Vvave with music streaming services, as well as plans for creating an online platform where users can share their music information and interests freely and openly. They would be able to share playlists, lyrics, and annotations, and possibly even stream songs to other users.
+Ultimately, Vvave will be a convergent music player with tons of features that allows connecting different devices. There are plans to integrate Vvave with music streaming services, as well as plans for creating an online platform where users can share their music information and interests freely and openly. They would be able to share playlists, lyrics, and annotations, and possibly even stream songs to other users.
The application will crawl the Internet and use the data found in music information repositories to establish relationships between the tracks in your music library, and generate suggestions based on that. The semantic search feature would allow users to search for songs by tags, such as "similar: sam smith" or "lyrics: make me cry" to discover new music or find specific tracks. Currently, Vvave integrates with a browser add-on (for Chrome, Chromium, and Firefox) that can collect songs from YouTube, Vimeo, and others, and import them into Vvave. Since Vvave is a young project, the idea behind it is still evolving. The developer is working on porting Vvave to Kirigami, and currently there is a working version that runs on Android, Plasma Mobile, and on GNU/Linux desktops.
+The application will crawl the Internet and use the data found in music information repositories to establish relationships between the tracks in your music library, and generate suggestions based on that. The semantic search feature would allow users to search for songs by tags, such as "similar: sam smith" or "lyrics: make me cry" to discover new music or find specific tracks. Currently, Vvave integrates with a browser add-on (for Chrome, Chromium, and Firefox) that can collect songs from YouTube, Vimeo, and others, and import them into Vvave. Since Vvave is a young project, the goals behind are still evolving. The developer is working on porting Vvave to Kirigami, and currently there is a working version that runs on Android, Plasma Mobile, and on GNU/Linux desktops.
The KDE e.V. Board of Directors met again in Berlin from 14th to 15th of October, 2017 for their autumn sprint. This sprint marked Eike Hein’s first participation as a board member, having taken on the position of the KDE e.V. Treasurer at Akademy 2017. The position was previously occupied by Marta Rybczynska. The group discussed topics such as KDE's 21th anniversary, staff and contractors, office inventory, events, community goals, strategic opportunities, fundraising infrastructure, websites, board self-assessment, and general budget. On the topic of events, the board reviewed KDE's presence at Qt World Summit 2017 and identified things that went pretty well, as well as defined opportunities for improving future KDE participation in such events. We also discussed initial steps for announcing Akademy 2018 in Vienna, defining sponsoring opportunities, and preparing the KDE e.V. Annual General Assembly. Furthermore, we also identified possible sprints for the upcoming months. Regarding the ongoing "Evolving KDE" initiative, the Board discussed the means by which community members could vote for the proposed goals, and looked at ways to support the proposers in their task of making the goals a reality in the next two to three years. Finally, we discussed strategic opportunities for KDE in the fields of mobile and automotive.
+The KDE e.V. Board of Directors met in Berlin from 14th to 15th of October, 2017 for their autumn sprint. This was Eike's first participation as a board member, having taken on the position of the KDE e.V. Treasurer at Akademy 2017. The position was previously occupied by Marta Rybczynska. The group discussed topics such as KDE's 21th anniversary, staff and contractors, office inventory, events, community goals, strategic opportunities, fundraising infrastructure, websites, board self-assessment, and general budget. On the topic of events, the board reviewed KDE's presence at Qt World Summit 2017 and identified things that went pretty well, as well as defined opportunities for improving future KDE participation in such events. They also discussed initial steps for announcing Akademy 2018 in Vienna, defining sponsoring opportunities, and preparing the KDE e.V. Annual General Assembly. Furthermore, they also identified possible sprints for the upcoming months. Regarding the ongoing "Evolving KDE" initiative, the Board discussed the means by which community members could vote for the proposed goals, and looked at ways to support goals' proponents to make the goals a reality in the next two to three years. Finally, they discussed strategic opportunities for KDE in the fields of mobile and automotive.
From 13th to 14th of May, 2017 the KDE e.V. Board of Directors met for their in-person spring sprint at KDE e.V. office in Berlin. At this sprint, the KDE e.V. marketing contractors Paul and Ivana, the assistant of the board Petra, and Sebastian Kügler joined the team to discuss actions to leverage KDE's marketing efforts and improve the community's public visibility. Discussion topics included planning the events where KDE has a presence, checking the progress of 2016's KDE e.V. goals and defining goals for 2017/2018, completing the KDE e.V.'s mission statement, planning the 2017 annual report, advancing community engagement with KDE e.V., and improving finance tracking. As for KDE events, alongside usual discussion and planning for Akademy (KDE’s annual summit), the group discussed actions for strengthening relationships with community partners ‒ for example, with the big KDE presence at 2017's Qt World Summit ‒ but also for expanding the KDE user- and contributor base in regions like Asia (through conferences such as FOSSASIA and Hong Kong Open Source Conference) and Latin-America (with the first edition of QtCon Brazil).
+From 13th to 14th of May, 2017 the KDE e.V. Board of Directors met for their in-person spring sprint at KDE e.V. office in Berlin. At this sprint, the KDE e.V. marketing contractors Paul and Ivana, the assistant of the board Petra, and Sebastian Kügler joined the team to discuss actions to leverage KDE's marketing efforts and improve the community's public visibility. Discussion topics included planning the events where KDE has a presence, checking the progress of 2016's KDE e.V. goals and defining goals for 2017/2018, completing the KDE e.V.'s mission statement, planning the 2017 annual report, advancing community engagement with KDE e.V., and improving finance tracking. As for KDE events, alongside usual discussion and planning for Akademy (KDE's annual summit), the group discussed actions for strengthening relationships with community partners ‒ for example, with the big KDE presence at 2017's Qt World Summit ‒ but also for expanding the KDE user and contributor base in regions like Asia (through conferences such as FOSSASIA and Hong Kong Open Source Conference) and Latin-America (with the first edition of QtCon Brazil).
Regarding KDE e.V. goals for 2016, the Board checked the progress of recent KDE e.V. actions, such as the creation of KDE e.V.'s Advisory Board and Fundraising Working Group, the "Evolving KDE" effort for setting community goals, and accounting improvements.
On the marketing side, Paul, Ivana, and Sebastian analyzed results from popular applications pools on social media, discussed how to make better use of available data about KDE community, started planning outreach actions for Akademy 2017, and talked about defining guidelines for publishing content on dot.kde.org.
+On the marketing side, Paul, Ivana, and Sebastian analyzed results from popular applications pools on social media, discussed how to make better use of available data about KDE community, planned outreach for Akademy 2017, and defined guidelines for publishing content on dot.kde.org.
KDE India's annual meetup, conf.kde.in reached new territories this year as it was conducted in the North-Eastern Indian state of Assam at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, a place we had never been before. While this was a challenge both logistically and geographically, the support of members from the community and local volunteers ensured that the event went ahead with minimum hassle. The traditional three day event happened over a weekend from 10th to the 12th of March, 2017. The delegates at the event ranged from seasoned contributors to new and budding student, passing though regular contributors to KDE software. The delegates were not strictly limited to just KDE contributors, something that highlights the inclusive nature of the conference. Regardless of their background, everybody were welcomed by an excited group of students, some of whom were already versed with software development practices and a few who were just starting out in their respective careers contributing to free software. All in all, there were close to 150-200 students who registered and attended the event.
+KDE India's annual meetup, conf.kde.in reached new territories in 2017. It was conducted in the North-Eastern Indian state of Assam at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, a place we had never been before. While this was a challenge both logistically and geographically, the support from community members and local volunteers made the event a success. The traditional three-day event happened over a weekend from 10th to the 12th of March, 2017. The delegates at the event ranged from seasoned contributors to new and budding student, passing through regular contributors to KDE software. The delegates were not strictly limited to just KDE contributors, something that highlights the inclusive nature of the conference. Regardless of their background, everybody was welcomed by an excited group of students, some of whom were already versed with software development practices while others were just starting out contributing to free software. There were close to 150-200 students who registered and attended the event.
Srijan Agarwal, then spoke about how WikiToLearn was helping bring Academia to the internet era while simultaneously highlighting opportunities for contributing to both content as well as software in the WikiToLearn project. The day was finally wrapped up by Pradeepto Bhattacharya, the founding member of KDE-India. He spoke about his long journey in contributing to KDE software and his experiences in the community and how it has shaped his career. An energetic talk that took a trip down the memory lane. A fitting closure to an active first day. The second day also had similarly exciting talks lined up. Sinny started the day by demonstrating the various KDE applications she uses daily for both work and leisure. Shantanu then displayed efficient ways of debugging QtQuick applications and introducing applications like GammaRay in the process. After this, the head of the Assam state, e-Gov mission team, Mukunda Madhab Puzari, made a guest appearance and took the time to deliver a quick talk on adoption of open source projects and free software practices in the government.
+Srijan Agarwal spoke about how WikiToLearn helped bring Academia to the Internet era while simultaneously highlighting opportunities for contributing to content and software. The day wrapped up with Pradeepto Bhattacharya, the founding member of KDE-India. He spoke about his long journey in contributing to KDE software, his experiences in the community, and how it has shaped his career. An energetic talk that took a trip down the memory lane. A fitting closure to an active first day. The second day had exciting talks lined up. Sinny started demonstrating the various KDE applications she uses daily for both work and leisure. Shantanu displayed efficient ways of debugging QtQuick applications and introducing applications like GammaRay in the process. After this, the head of the Assam state, e-Gov mission team, Mukunda Madhab Puzari, made a guest appearance and took the time to deliver a quick talk on adoption of open source projects and free software practices in the government.
This year's keynote was delivered by long-time KDE contributor and member of KDE's CWG (Community Working Group), Valorie Zimmerman. Valorie spoke broadly about the power of free software and how the capabilities of free software projects were a superpower that we all possessed. This very enlightening talk kicked off proceedings on a high note and was followed by Pradeepto and Shantanu introducing KDE/Qt software and tools and subsequently demonstrating what software development with these projects usually looks like. Even the lunch time on day 1 was busy, with lots of participants flocking to meet the speakers and keen to share their existing work and ideas, as well as to ask questions on a wide variety of topics. By the end of it all, everyone left the lunch hall with gleaming smiles of satisfaction, either because their questions had been answered or because they had enjoyed some sumptuous local cuisine. After lunch, the series of talks was resumed by Bhushan Shah, one of the organizational administrators for student programs at KDE, telling the audience about his own journey into KDE land and pointing out different opportunities that KDE had to offer.
+This year's keynote was delivered by long-time KDE contributor and member of KDE's CWG (Community Working Group), Valorie Zimmerman. Valorie spoke broadly about the power of free software and how the capabilities of free software projects were a superpower that we all possessed. This enlightening talk kicked off proceedings on a high note and was followed by Pradeepto and Shantanu introducing KDE/Qt software and tools, and demonstrated what software development with these projects looks like. Even lunch time on day 1 was busy, with lots of participants flocking to meet the speakers and keen on sharing their work and ideas. Everyone left the lunch hall with gleaming smiles of satisfaction, having their questions been answered and because they enjoyed some sumptuous local cuisine. Talks resumed with Bhushan Shah, one of the organizational administrators for student programs at KDE, who shared his own journey into KDE and pointing out different opportunities that KDE offered.
Before lunch, Wrishiraj Kaushik spoke about the Journey of SuperX and how it has found KDE software valuable. A delicious lunch was followed by a few more student talks with Divyam and Aniketh detailing their baby steps in the KDE land. While Divyam spoke about his experience with GCompris, Aniketh delivered a talk on "Object tracking using OpenCV and Qt". Garvit Khatri demoed how Python and C++ can be used in integrated projects, talking in particular about CPython. The post-lunch sessions included Tony Thomas' talk on why students should consider participating in programs like the Google Summer of Code. Tony spoke about his experiences as an organization admin at the WikiMedia foundation. The final day was dedicated entirely to conducting hands-on workshops and everyone came in with their own laptops, some with fresh KDE Plasma installations on them. Ashish Madeti delivered an introduction to using version control with Git and the whole team then set about helping the participants build their first QtQuick applications. The response was overwhelming and students seemed to like the easiness with which they were able to create simple applications with UIs using Qt/QtQuick.
+Wrishiraj Kaushik spoke about the Journey of SuperX and how it has found KDE software valuable. A delicious lunch was followed by a few more student talks with Divyam and Aniketh detailing their baby steps in the KDE land. Divyam spoke about his experience with GCompris, Aniketh delivered a talk on "Object tracking using OpenCV and Qt". Garvit Khatri demoed how Python and C++ can be used in integrated projects, talking in particular about CPython. Post-lunch sessions included Tony Thomas' talk on why students should consider participating in programs like the Google Summer of Code. Tony realted his experiences as an organization admin at the WikiMedia foundation. The final day was dedicated entirely to conducting hands-on workshops and everyone came in with their own laptops, some with fresh KDE Plasma installations on them. Ashish Madeti delivered an introduction to using version control with Git and the whole team then set about helping the participants build their first QtQuick applications. The response was overwhelming and students liked how easy it was to create simple applications with UIs using Qt/QtQuick.
These included the various student programs as well as developer sprints. Following this, Harish delivered a talk in which he demonstrated how KDE projects are built and what role a build system plays. He spoke in detail about various tidbits of CMake and touched upon some CMake internals, explaining for example, how the find_package() call works and what different modes it functions in.
+These included the various student programs as well as developer sprints. Following this, Harish delivered a talk in which he demonstrated how KDE projects are built and what role a build system plays. He spoke in detail about various tidbits of CMake and touched upon some CMake internals. He explained, for example, how the find_package() call works and what different modes it functions in.
Finally, there was a comprehensive question and answer session with the participants and students, a session that flagged the culmination of what had been three immensely gratifying days. We had enjoyed the interaction between the delegates and participants, spread awareness of the importance of free software practices, and demonstrated the endless possibilities of using KDE, while at the same time contributing to KDE software and the wider community.
+Finally, there was a comprehensive question and answer session with the participants and students, a session that flagged the culmination of what had been three immensely gratifying days. We enjoyed the interaction between the delegates and participants, spread awareness of the importance of free software practices, and demonstrated the endless possibilities of using KDE. All, while contributing to KDE software and the wider community.
Web browsing is an area where KDE software was quite lacking in the past several years. The old days of Konqueror with the KHTML engine are behind us. Konqueror had been first ported to QtWebKit, but then had to be ported yet again to QtWebEngine due to QtWebKit being deprecated. That has been more or less the only development it has received recently. However, Konqueror is more than a web browser - it is also a file manager and a document viewer.
+Web browsing is an area where KDE software was quite lacking in the past several years. The old days of Konqueror with the KHTML engine are behind us. Konqueror had been first ported to QtWebKit, but then had to be ported yet again to QtWebEngine due to QtWebKit being deprecated. That has been more or less the only development it has received recently. However, Konqueror is more than a web browser #8210 it is also a file manager and a document viewer.
Although useful, this set of features is not something that users expect from web browsers nowadays. To solve this issue, two options presented themselves: either spend a lot of resources on modernizing Konqueror, or adopt an existing Qt browser that is actively developed and available right now. This is where QupZilla, rebranded as Falkon under KDE, comes in.
+Although useful, this set of features is not something that users expect from web browsers nowadays. To solve this issue, two options presented themselves: either spend a lot of resources on modernizing Konqueror, or adopt an existing Qt browser that is actively developed and available right now. This is where QupZilla, re-branded as Falkon under KDE, comes in.
QupZilla is a relatively new web browser. The project started in late 2010 as a Qt web browser based on the QtWebKit web engine. Since its creation, the development has continued at a fast pace, and soon QupZilla became available in the repositories of all major Linux distributions. The first release with the current web engine (QtWebEngine) came out in 2016. Since then, a lot of work has been done to ensure everything works correctly. The transition hasn’t been easy due to QtWebEngine’s multi-process architecture. In 2017, QupZilla was rebranded as Falkon and the project officially came under KDE's wing. As a browser that tightly integrates into the Plasma desktop and with other KDE applications, Falkon will provide KDE users with a modern web browsing experience. Thanks to the chosen web engine (QtWebEngine - Chromium) and a number of available extensions (such as AdBlock or GreaseMonkey), Falkon is able to provide a browsing experience comparable with other major web browsers. Users can already try the development versions of Falkon by installing the snap package provided by KDE Neon. The first official release of Falkon is expected in 2018.
+QupZilla is a relatively new web browser. The project started in late 2010 as a Qt web browser based on the QtWebKit web engine. Since its creation, the development has continued at a fast pace, and soon QupZilla became available in the repositories of all major Linux distributions. The first release with the current web engine (QtWebEngine) came out in 2016. Since then, a lot of work has been done to ensure everything works correctly. The transition hasn't been easy due to QtWebEngine's multi-process architecture. In 2017, QupZilla was re-branded as Falkon and the project officially came under KDE's wing. As a browser that tightly integrates into the Plasma desktop and with other KDE applications, Falkon will provide KDE users with a modern web browsing experience. Thanks to the chosen web engine (QtWebEngine #8210; Chromium) and a number of available extensions (such as AdBlock or GreaseMonkey), Falkon is able to provide a browsing experience comparable with other major web browsers. Users can already try the development versions of Falkon by installing the snap package provided by KDE Neon. The first official release of Falkon is expected in 2018.
Back in the summer of 2015, we announced Plasma Mobile as a community effort to bring Plasma and other KDE technologies to handset devices. This was a big step towards building a free operating system for smartphones. Following on from the ramp-up tasks and learning experiences of those first few years, in 2017 we saw major revisions to the architecture of Plasma Mobile OS images for supported devices. As a result of those efforts, users are now porting Plasma Mobile being ported to a wide variety of phones. Closely related to this is the new collaboration with the wider community of users and developers of Free software and operating systems for mobile devices. The community has greatly helped us with porting Plasma Mobile.
+Back in the summer of 2015, we announced Plasma Mobile as a community effort to bring Plasma and other KDE technologies to handheld devices. This was a big step towards building a free operating system for smartphones. Learning from the ramp-up tasks and learning experiences of those first few years, in 2017 we saw major revisions to the architecture of Plasma Mobile OS images for supported devices. As a result, users are now porting Plasma Mobile to a wide variety of phones. Closely related is the new collaboration with the wider community of users and developers of Free Software and operating systems for mobile devices. The community has greatly helped with porting Plasma Mobile.
On the frontend side, the Plasma Mobile components use open standards to interface with the rest of the system. For example, we use OpenGL to render the user interface. However, current devices often require proprietary OpenGL drivers. Many of those drivers are developed for Google's Android operating system, and only work in the context of that system. For this reason, in Plasma Mobile's original architecture the frontend was run inside a container on a stripped down Android host system adjusted to a particular device.
+Plasma Mobile components use open standards to interface with the rest of the system. For example, OpenGL is used to render the user interface. However, current devices often require proprietary OpenGL drivers. Many of these drivers are developed for the Android operating system and only work in the context of that system. In Plasma Mobile's original architecture, the frontend was run inside a container on a stripped down Android host system adjusted to a particular device.
This architecture turned out to be difficult to operate in practice. It also kept too much of the basic operating system from under our direct control. Eventually, we decided that the right way to go about this is to flip everything on its head: the only Android bits we really care about are the kernel and drivers needed to run the device. Therefore, in a modern Plasma Mobile device image, we run a traditional Linux host system with the Android tree for the device containerized within it. This allows us significantly more freedom on the side of the host system, in fact it helps everybody, assince images based on multiple different Linux distributions have been implemented since. The new approach also helps with KDE's goals of privacy and security, since the foreign Android code can be sandboxed away.
+This architecture turned out to be difficult to operate in practice. It also kept too much of the basic operating system from our direct control. We decided that the right way to go about this was to turn everything on its head: the only Android bits we really care about were the kernel and drivers needed to run the device. Consequently, in a modern Plasma Mobile device image, we run a traditional Linux host system with the Android tree for the device containerized within it. This allows us to have significantly more freedom from the side of the host system. In fact, it helps everybody, since images based on multiple different Linux distributions have been implemented since. The new approach also helps with KDE's goals of privacy and security, since external Android code can be sandboxed.
Plasma Mobile is not the only Free device OS project that currently needs to tame Android to run on existing hardware. It makes obvious sense to share the work on this tooling between the communities sharing this need. For one, this gives the community a central target to join in porting all of those Free systems to additional devices. The Plasma Mobile project acts as a founding member of Project Halium. The initiative was set up in 2017 to maintain this approach to reusing Android drivers in alternative operating systems for mobile devices. Project Halium has proven enormously successful at implementing its goals since. Ports of Halium and Plasma Mobile to many new devices are now in varying stages of completeness, and most of them were created by new contributors.
+Plasma Mobile is not the only free device OS project that currently needs to tame Android to run on existing hardware. It makes obvious sense to share the work on this tooling between the communities. For one, this gives the community a central target to join in porting all of those free systems to additional devices. The Plasma Mobile project acts as a founding member of Project Halium. The initiative was set up in 2017 to maintain this approach to reusing Android drivers in alternative operating systems for mobile devices. Project Halium has proven enormously successful at implementing these goals since. Ports of Halium and Plasma Mobile to many new devices are now in varying stages of completeness, and most of them were created by new contributors.
2017 also saw the inception of postmarketOS, a project started by Oliver Smith, an independent developer. postmarketOS aims to provide devices with what vendors fail to offer: a 10-year software lifecycle. Since its announcement in the spring of 2017, the project has garnered significant attention. postmarketOS is interested in providing the Plasma Mobile user interface to its users. Unlike Project Halium, which is about making use of vendor-provided binary blobs to support as many existing devices as possible, postmarketOS makes a point of using open drivers and avoiding binary blobs where it can. As per its founding motivation, the project tries to help with mainlining as much driver code as possible to keep older devices supported well into the future. postmarketOS' device images are based on the Alpine Linux distribution.
+2017 also saw the inception of postmarketOS, a project started by Oliver Smith, an independent developer. postmarketOS aims to provide devices with what vendors fail to offer: a 10-year software lifecycle. Since its announcement in the spring of 2017, the project has gathered significant attention. postmarketOS is interested in providing the Plasma Mobile user interface to its users. Unlike Project Halium, which is about making use of vendor-provided binary blobs to support as many existing devices as possible, postmarketOS makes a point of using open drivers and avoiding binary blobs where it can. As per its founding motivation, the project tries to help with streamlining as much driver code as possible to keep older devices supported. postmarketOS' device images are based on the Alpine Linux distribution.
The Plasma Mobile team has been working closely with the postmarketOS developers to make their dream a reality. Early successes of the collaboration include getting Plasma Mobile to run on postmarketOS' base system, and demonstrating a device image that uses a mainline kernel to run on actual hardware, free of proprietary binaries.
+The Plasma Mobile team has been working closely with postmarketOS developers to make their dream a reality. Early successes of this collaboration include getting Plasma Mobile to run on postmarketOS' base system, and demonstrating a device image that uses a mainline kernel to run on actual hardware #8210; free of proprietary binaries.
With the previous two stories focusing on the software side of things, another exciting development in late 2017 was the announcement of dedicated hardware Plasma Mobile could run on. Purism, a company known in the community as the maker of Linux-focused laptop PCs, concluded a successful crowdfunding campaign for a security- and privacy-focused smartphone: The Librem 5. Already during the campaign, Purism announced a formal collaboration with the KDE community, committing to help develop Plasma Mobile for the planned device. The Librem 5 hardware will be based around the Freescale NXP i.MX6 or i.MX8 ARM CPU and Vivante GPU, both of which are supported by Free software drivers on Linux.
+The previous two stories focused on the software side of things. Another exciting development in late 2017 was the announcement of dedicated hardware for Plasma Mobile. Purism, a company known in the community as the Linux-focused laptop PCs maker, concluded a successful crowdfunding campaign for a security- and privacy-focused smartphone: The Librem 5. During the campaign, Purism announced a formal collaboration with the KDE community. They committed to help develop Plasma Mobile for the planned device. The Librem 5 hardware will be based around the Freescale NXP i.MX6 or i.MX8 ARM CPU and Vivante GPU, both of which are supported by Free software drivers on Linux.
Quickly after the funding campaign ended, Purism engineer and Debian developer Matthias Klump already demonstrated Plasma Mobile running on Purism's i.MX6 development board.
A KDE project closely related to Plasma Mobile is the user interface framework Kirigami. Kirigami focuses on providing application developers with tools to create convergent applications, that is, applications that easily run on both desktop and handset devices, smoothly adapting to each form factor. Application developers, both by KDE contributors and by other parties, started adopting Kirigami in 2017. Kirigami-based applications target Plasma Mobile, but also Android and iOS, Plasma Desktop, Microsoft Windows and other platforms.
-Inside the KDE community, developers of the group chat application Konversation started revamping its user interface using Kirigami, with support for Plasma Mobile listed as an explicit motivation. Ruqola, Calligra Gemini, Koko, Kamoso and other Kirigami ports join this pattern of moving to Kirigami to modernize their user experience and provide first-class support for mobile devices.
-Developers of external projects have also started building on Kirigami, and are therefore getting ready to run on Plasma Mobile. Some examples include Kaidan, a modern XMPP/Jabber-based messaging client; Subsurface, a diving log tool; and Vvave Media Player. 2017 was the most productive and exciting year for Plasma Mobile since its inception, and 2018 looks poised to surpass it in every way. Thanks to initiatives like Project Halium and postmarketOS, we expect Plasma Mobile to become available on many new devices. Purism's Librem 5 is shaping up to provide Plasma Mobile with hardware specifically created with Free software in mind. Finally, thanks to Kirigami, Plasma Mobile is quickly evolving into a vibrant application ecosystem for users to enjoy.
+A KDE project closely related to Plasma Mobile is the user interface framework Kirigami. Kirigami focuses on providing application developers with tools to create convergent applications, that is, applications that easily run on both desktop and handset devices, seamlessly adapting to each form factor. Application developers, from KDE and other parties, started adopting Kirigami in 2017. Kirigami-based applications target Plasma Mobile, but also Android and iOS, Plasma Desktop, Microsoft Windows and other platforms.
+Inside the KDE community, developers of the group chat application Konversation started revamping its user interface using Kirigami, with support for Plasma Mobile listed as an explicit motivation. Ruqola, Calligra Gemini, Koko, Kamoso and other Kirigami ports joined this effort of moving to Kirigami. Their aim was to modernize their user experience and provide first-class support for mobile devices.
+Other projects have also show interest in moving to Kirigami. Some of them are Kaidan, a modern XMPP/Jabber-based messaging client; Subsurface, a diving log tool; and Vvave Media Player. 2017 was the most productive and exciting year for Plasma Mobile since its inception, and 2018 looks poised to surpass it in every way. Thanks to initiatives like Project Halium and postmarketOS, we expect Plasma Mobile to become available on many more devices. Purism's Librem 5 is shaping up to provide Plasma Mobile with hardware specifically created with Free software in mind. Finally, thanks to Kirigami, Plasma Mobile is quickly evolving into a vibrant application ecosystem for users to enjoy.
The Financial Working Group exists to support the KDE e.V. board, in particular the treasurer, in handling the organization's financial matters. Unlike most other KDE e.V. working groups, its members are elected by the membership. This reflects the special responsibilities that may come with access to financial data and documents of the organization. In 2017, the Financial Working Group saw several membership changes, updated its charter, and welcomed a newly-appointed treasurer to the KDE e.V. board. The work started in January with a joint call to make plans for the new year and to discuss the first draft of the KDE e.V. budget for 2017, issued by the treasurer. When the budget work was completed, subsequent calls focused on discussing the budget for Akademy 2017 in Almería, Spain, in detail; preparing a report to the membership to be unveiled during the annual General Assembly; and, finally, preparing for the new treasurer that would succeed Marta Rybczyńska following the board elections, also held at the General Assembly.
+The Financial Working Group exists to support the KDE e.V. board, in particular the treasurer, in handling the organization's finances. Unlike most other KDE e.V. working groups, its members are elected by the membership. This reflects the special responsibilities that may come with access to financial data and documents of the organization. In 2017, the Financial Working Group saw several membership changes, updated its charter, and welcomed a newly-appointed treasurer to the KDE e.V. board. The work started in January with a joint call to make plans for the new year and to discuss the first draft of the KDE e.V. budget for 2017, issued by the treasurer. When the budget work was completed, subsequent calls focused on discussing the budget for Akademy 2017 in Almería, Spain, in detail; preparing a report to the membership to be unveiled during the annual General Assembly; and, finally, preparing for the new treasurer that would succeed Marta Rybczyńska following the board elections, also held at the General Assembly.
After Akademy 2017, where Eike Hein joined the KDE e.V. board as the new treasurer, the KDE e.V. membership discussed and passed two vote proposals related to the Financial Working Group. The first is an update to the Working Group's charter, adding a new rule through which a KDE e.V. board member who vacates the position of treasurer at the end of their term automatically joins the working group membership. This will make the second vote proposal - adding the previous treasurer Marta Rybczyńska to the FWG - unnecessary in the future. In 2017, two members exited the Financial Working Group. Rohan Garg's term expired, and Claudia Rauch decided to step down due to other commitments. With the addition of Marta Rybczyńska, the membership is now only three strong. Two further terms will expire in the fall of 2018. Therefore, a call for new candidate members to step up will be necessary in 2018.
+After Akademy 2017, where Eike Hein joined the KDE e.V. board as the new treasurer, the KDE e.V. membership discussed and passed two vote proposals related to the Financial Working Group. The first is an update to the Working Group's charter, adding a new rule through which a KDE e.V. board member who vacates the position of treasurer at the end of their term automatically joins the working group membership. This will make the second vote proposal ‒ adding the previous treasurer Marta Rybczyńska to the FWG ‒ unnecessary in the future. In 2017, two members exited the Financial Working Group. Rohan Garg's term expired, and Claudia Rauch decided to step down due to other commitments. With the addition of Marta Rybczyńska, the membership is now only three strong. Two terms will expire in the fall of 2018. A new call for candidates to this group is open for 2018.
Closing the year, in December the Financial Working Group started reviewing drafts of the 2018 budget issued by the treasurer. This process is expected to conclude in January of 2018.
+In December the Financial Working Group received drafts of the 2018 budget. The process is expected to conclude in January of 2018.
Income (€): |
|
|---|---|
| Corporate Supporters: | 21000.00 |
| Individual Supporters: | 16700.00 |
| Donations: | 99185.02 |
| QtCon: | 214390.41 |
| Total: | 351275.43 |
Expenses (€): |
|
|---|---|
| Sprints and meetings: | 32742.71 |
| QtCon: | 253115.49 |
| Personnel costs: | 18230.30 |
| Office and organizational costs: | 4648.90 |
| Infrastructure: | 3894.59 |
| Other: | 26475.55 |
| Total: | 339107.54 |
The FOSSASIA Summit was held from the 17th to 19th of March in Singapore. -Many FOSS communities showcased their hardware, designs, graphics, and software at the conference. Representing the KDE Community, Anu Mittal gave a talk on "’K’oding with KDE". Anu talked about the KDE community, its mission and vision, and the various mentoring programs organized by KDE to support budding developers.
+Many FOSS communities showcased their hardware, designs, graphics, and software at the conference. Anu Mittal represented the KDE community with a a talk on "'K'oding with KDE". Anu talked about the KDE community, its mission and vision, and the various mentoring programs organized by KDE to support budding developers.She introduced the audience to all the steps required to start contributing to KDE, and presented the KDE bug tracker, the IRC channels, various application domains, and the Season of KDE proposal format. Anu also shared the story of her projects with Season of KDE and Google Summer of Code. The audience was enthusiastic and curious to start contributing in KDE. Anu's motivating experience left a positive impact on the local community members. We hope to capture this interest and help them develop into contributing members of the KDE community.
Hong Kong Open Source Conference (HKOSCon) is an open source event held in Hong Kong which aims to showcase and promote open source projects and activities happening across the globe. This year, HKOSCon took place from 9th to 10th of June. Heena Mahour presented a talk on "KDE: Journey of a SoK student to GCI organization administrator". Heena discussed her experience as a Season of KDE student, which was her first time contributing to KDE, and explained how she continued contributing to KDE afterwards.
+Hong Kong Open Source Conference (HKOSCon) is an open source event held in Hong Kong which aims to showcase and promote open source projects and activities happening across the globe. This year, HKOSCon took place from 9th to 10th of June. Heena Mahour presented a talk titled "KDE: Journey of a SoK student to GCI organization administrator". Heena discussed her experience as a Season of KDE student, which was her first time contributing to KDE. She explained how she continued contributing to KDE after the project.
She also talked about recent trends in Season of KDE (the KDE community outreach program), and provided an insight into Plasma projects as an example of the scale of KDE teams and software. Heena also discussed the contributions made by KDE in Google Code-In, encouraging the students to join the project. She provided information about GCompris, and Pairs, presented a word cloud from Season of KDE Twitter posts, and listed the contributions she had made so far. Judging from Heena's experience, it is exciting and rewarding to help new contributors join the KDE community as a way of "paying it forward".
+Heena talked about recent trends in Season of KDE (the KDE community outreach program), and provided an insight into Plasma projects as an example of the scale of KDE teams and software. Heena also discussed the contributions made by KDE in Google Code-In, encouraging the students to join the project. She provided information about GCompris, and Pairs, presented a word cloud from Season of KDE Twitter posts, and listed the contributions she had made so far. Judging from Heena's experience, it is exciting and rewarding to help new contributors join the KDE community as a way of "paying it forward".
KDE e.V. is a registered non-profit organization that represents the KDE Community in legal and financial matters. The KDE e.V.'s purpose is the promotion and distribution of free desktop software in terms of free software, and the program package "K Desktop Environment (KDE)" in particular, to promote the free exchange of knowledge and equality of opportunity in accessing software as well as education, science and research.
We discussed the website and the strategies for presenting our projects to the outside world. We also covered improvements to our usage of Phabricator and our roles on the different goals we set for ourselves.
Educational software users come from different backgrounds and use different platforms, so we don't want to leave anyone behind. That is why we spent some time figuring out the best way to deliver our applications to Windows and Android users. We also looked into our Flatpak packages to discover the showstoppers and implement some improvements. At some point, we will be able to offer fresh and stable versions of our software right onto everybody's device. And of course, we coded. Meetings are great for discussions, but it's also nice to be able to sit with your friends, in front of a laptop with a warm coffee, and start looking into the issues that have been holding us back. We pushed improvements for Cantor and its integration with several languages, released a new version of KTuberling for Android, and a new GCompris version for classrooms. We worked on Marble's routing features and got Minuet running on Windows. All in all, the sprint helped us overcome some crucial roadblocks, and KDE Edu apps are now better than ever.
+Educational software users come from different backgrounds and use different platforms. Not looking to leave anyone behind, we spent time figuring out the best way to deliver our applications to Windows and Android users. We also looked into our Flatpak packages to discover the bugs and implement some improvements. In the future, we will be able to offer fresh and stable versions of our software right onto everybody's device, and of course, we coded. Meetings are great for discussions, but it's also nice to be able to sit with your friends, in front of a laptop with a warm coffee, and start looking into the issues that have been holding us back. We pushed improvements for Cantor and its integration with several languages, released a new version of KTuberling for Android, and a new GCompris version for classrooms. We worked on Marble's routing features and got Minuet running on Windows. The sprint helped us overcome some crucial roadblocks, and KDE Edu apps are now better than ever.
Membership. In 2016 we welcomed 2 new members, increasing our membership to 26 plus one honorary member. The KDE España Board went through some changes: Antonio Larrosa replaced Aleix Pol as President, Adrián Chávez replaced Àlex Fiestas as vice-president, and Baltasar Ortega replaced Víctor Blázquez as secretary. José Millan remained as treasurer.
-Akademy-es 2016. Our main event of the year – Akademy-es – was held from the 15th to 17th of April, 2016 in Madrid. More than 80 visitors, including several members of KDE España and local Free Software enthusiasts, attended over 15 presentations on KDE Community projects and Free Software in general. The event was kindly sponsored by OpenSUSE, eyeOS, and Open Sistemas. We discussed Plasma, KDE Frameworks, KDE Applications, how to collaborate with Free Software projects, the OpenSUSE's Open Build Service, Clazy, KDE Connect, and much more. There was an interesting talk about Wikipedia, a presentation of the Slimbook, a lot of socializing and good food. You can find a more detailed list of topics along with some videos here.
-20th Anniversary of KDE We celebrated 20 years of KDE on several locations in Spain. Generally speaking, there were two types of events: simple meetings in public places for food, drinks, and chat; and organized presentations on various KDE products. The events took place in Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, Oviedo, Santiago de Compostela and Vila-real, and most of them were coordinated by the association. Admittedly, our celebrations were not fancy, but they did attract some local KDE and Free Software enthusiasts.
-Promotion. Promotion is among the most important tasks for the organization, especially within Spain. Our official website was renovated in 2016, and we adopted WordPress as the backend. It is now much easier to post content and make it reflect the KDE branding. Apart from working on our usual tasks like talks, blog posts and social media presence, we continued producing our podcast that we’re especially proud of. In 2015, KDE España launched a regular live video-podcast in Spanish. During the second season, we aired 7 episodes on topics like Plasma Mobile, KDE on Android, the Plasma Desktop on different distributions, the Akademy 2016 summary, the present and future of Plasma 5, Flatpak and Snappy, and a special edition to celebrate 20 years of KDE. Podcast episodes are about an hour long and attract around 300 views per episode. You can find them on the KDE España Youtube channel.
-
- Barcelona Free Software. Barcelona Free Software is a local group of enthusiasts from the city who get together and discuss different Free Software projects and approaches. In 2016 we organized 11 events and hosted presentations about FSFE with Matthias Kirschner, Bitsquare with Manfred Karrer, and F-Droid with Daniel Martí. We also had a few social gatherings to celebrate our first thousand members and the 20th anniversary of KDE. Most of these meetings happened in the Skyscanner offices in Barcelona. The group also collaborated on creating two documents to explain Free Software to the local community. You can find the documents here and here.
-KTechLab is an IDE for microcontrollers and electronics. It allows quick editing and simulation of electronic circuits, including circuits with PIC microcontrollers in them. The programs running on the PIC microcontroller can be either graphically drawn as flowcharts, or edited as text in the C programming language, assembly code, or the custom language targeted for beginners called "microbe". In the circuits, all voltages and currents are displayed in real-time. Additionally, when simulating a PIC microcontroller, the program running on the microcontroller can be thoroughly inspected. In 2017, KTechLab completed the process of joining KDE. All of the project’s assets are now hosted on KDE infrastructure. The project’s codebase has been ported from KDE3/Qt3 to KDE4/Qt4, making the application much easier to use on modern operating systems. The porting effort resulted in a new release (0.40.0), and the work on porting KTechLab to KF5/Qt5 is currently in progress.
+KTechLab is an IDE for micro-controllers and electronics. It allows quick editing and simulation of electronic circuits, including circuits with PIC micro-controllers in them. The programs running on the PIC micro-controller can be either graphically drawn as flowcharts, or edited as text in the C programming language, assembly code, or the custom language targeted for beginners called "microbe". In the circuits, all voltages and currents are displayed in real-time. Additionally, when simulating a PIC micro-controller, the program running on the micro-controller can be thoroughly inspected. In 2017, KTechLab completed the process of joining KDE. All of the project's assets are now hosted on KDE infrastructure. The project's codebase has been ported from KDE3/Qt3 to KDE4/Qt4, making the application much easier to use on modern operating systems. The porting effort resulted in a new release (0.40.0), and the work on porting KTechLab to KF5/Qt5 is currently in progress.
The fifth edition of LaKademy took place in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), from 29th April to 1st May. LaKademy is an effort to promote the culture of FLOSS, hacking sessions, and collaborative work inside the Latin-American KDE community. It is also a way to let people know about the Brazilian/Latin-American KDE community, the sort of work we usually do, and how newcomers (six have attended this edition of LaKademy) can start their journeys into the free software world. And, of course, is the place to strengthen relationships, make new friends, and let people fall in love about such an amazing FLOSS community. Sixteen contributors attended LaKademy 2017, interested in contributing to translation, promo, artwork, Atelier, Umbrello, KDE-Edu, Dolphin, KDE Games, KDevelop, and Kdenlive. The traditional LaKademy promo meeting happened on 30th morning, where we made a retrospect of 2016 actions and started thinking about what we want to do for 2017/2018. Like in past editions Filipe Saraiva worked a lot with Cantor, the mathematical software he maintains at KDE. This time the main tasks performed were an extensive set of reviews: revisions in pending patches, in the bug management system in order to close very old (and invalid) reports, and in the task management workboard, specially to ping developers with old tasks without any comment in the last year.
+The fifth edition of LaKademy took place in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), from 29th April to 1st May. LaKademy is an effort to promote the FLOSS culture, hacking sessions, and collaborative work inside the Latin-American KDE community. It is also a way to let people know about the Brazilian/Latin-American KDE community, the sort of work we usually do, and how newcomers (six have attended this edition of LaKademy) can start their journeys into the free software world. It is the place to strengthen relationships, make new friends, and let people fall in love about such an amazing FLOSS community. Sixteen contributors attended LaKademy 2017, interested in contributing to translation, promo, artwork, Atelier, Umbrello, KDE-Edu, Dolphin, KDE Games, KDevelop, and Kdenlive. The traditional LaKademy promo meeting happened on 30th morning, where we made a retrospect of 2016 actions and started thinking about what we want to do for 2017/2018. As in the past editions, Filipe Saraiva dedicated a lot of time to Cantor, the mathematical software he maintains at KDE. This time the main tasks performed were an extensive set of reviews: revisions in pending patches, in the bug management system in order to close very old (and invalid) reports, and in the task management workboard, specially to ping developers with old tasks without any comment in the last year.
In LaKademy 2017 we also worked in other set of tasks related to the management and promotion of KDE Brazil. We investigated how to bring back our unified feed with Brazilian blogs posts as in the old Planet KDE Português, utilized to send updates about KDE in Brazil to our social networks.
Frederico Guimarães implemented the solution and Filipe updated this feed in social networks, updated our e-mail contact utilized in this networks, and started a bootstrap version of LaKademy website (but the team is migrating to WordPress, I think it will not be used). We also did a large revision in the tasks of KDE Brazil workboard, migrated past year from the TODO website. Besides all this we had the promo meeting to discuss our actions in Latin-America – all the tasks were documented in the workboard.
+Frederico Guimarães implemented the solution and Filipe updated this feed in social networks, updated our e-mail contact utilized in this networks, and started a bootstrap version of LaKademy website (but the team is migrating to WordPress, I think it will not be used). We also did a large revision in the tasks of KDE Brazil workboard, migrated past year from the TODO website. Besides all this, we had the promo meeting to discuss our actions in Latin-America ‒ all the tasks were documented in the workboard.
Voice assistants are coming to every device, every household, and every platform. We want them because they are intuitive, simple and powerful. They bring together massive amounts of data and intuitively put together the pieces required to provide us with meaningful information. This not only enhances our daily computing experience, but also makes basic life tasks like setting alarms or controlling smart home devices simple. The base technologies that power virtual assistants - wake word listeners, speech-to-text engines, natural language processing, intent parsers, text-to-speech systems - were previously walled-off and only lived behind proprietary "black box" implementations like Alexa, Siri and Cortana. Mycroft is the very first open source artificial intelligence platform that pulls together the entire technical voice stack for a completely open source implementation. The flexible architecture allows both users and developers to pick the right technology for their technical and privacy needs and wants.
+Voice assistants are coming to every device, every household, and every platform. We want them because they are intuitive, simple and powerful. They bring together massive amounts of data and intuitively put together the pieces required to provide us with meaningful information. This not only enhances our daily computing experience, but also makes basic life tasks like setting alarms or controlling smart home devices simple. The base technologies that power virtual assistants ‒ wake word listeners, speech-to-text engines, natural language processing, intent parsers, text-to-speech systems ‒ were previously walled-off and only lived behind proprietary "black box" implementations like Alexa, Siri and Cortana. Mycroft is the very first open source artificial intelligence platform that pulls together the entire technical voice stack for a completely open source implementation. The flexible architecture allows both users and developers to pick the right technology for their technical and privacy needs and wants.
The local-first design limits the requirement to push things to the cloud (AKA "somebody else's computer"). Embracing the open source ethos, Mycroft is working with others to build something better together. Collaboration with Mozilla Research will result in a better Speech-to-Text engine for everyone, simultaneously pioneering the idea of ethically sharing data without losing personal control via the Open Dataset. Building on work from Carnegie Mellon and Google has led to the Mimic, Precise and Padatious technologies. Working with KDE is setting the standard for combining a voice assistant with a rich desktop environment. The Mycroft Plasmoid, an intuitive GUI built using the powerful Qt frameworks, was adopted into KDE as a project this year. The Plasmoid allows users to leverage the power and intelligence of Mycroft's core technologies to connect to the voice assistant ecosystem and extend it with a new layer for desktop control and visual interaction.
+The local-first design limits the requirement to push things to the cloud (AKA "somebody else's computer"). Embracing the open source ethos, Mycroft is working with others to build something better together. Collaboration with Mozilla Research will result in a better Speech-to-Text engine for everyone, simultaneously pioneering the idea of ethically sharing data without losing personal control via the Open Dataset. Building on work from Carnegie Mellon and Google has led to the Mimic, Precise and Padatious technologies. Working with KDE is setting the standard for combining a voice assistant with a rich desktop environment. The Mycroft Plasmoid, an intuitive GUI built using the powerful Qt frameworks, was adopted into KDE as a project this year. The Plasmoid allows users to leverage the power and intelligence of Mycroft's core technologies to connect to the voice assistant ecosystem and extend it with a new layer for desktop control and visual interaction.
In combination with the Plasmoid GUI, Mycroft supports voice interaction with system settings, desktop components and user applications. Get stuff done seamlessly on your Plasma platform - no more searching for the right button or menu item in the right application or dialog box. Open applications, set reminders, manage calendar schedules, search for files, manage your activities, control IoT lights, get the latest news and weather updates, play your favourite music or listen to witty (or cringy) jokes. The number of things Mycroft can do is growing daily. The developer community is creating quality skills that are easy to find and can be installed verbally or via the intuitive Mycroft Plasmoid GUI. As the integration with Mycroft matures, more core KDE applications will be able to provide an integrated experience. The possibilities are exciting, and the KDE Plasma platform is on the path to become the "futuristic" computer we’ve all dreamed of using!
+In combination with the Plasmoid GUI, Mycroft supports voice interaction with system settings, desktop components and user applications. Get stuff done seamlessly on your Plasma platform ‒ no more searching for the right button or menu item in the right application or dialog box. Open applications, set reminders, manage calendar schedules, search for files, manage your activities, control IoT lights, get the latest news and weather updates, play your favorite music or listen to witty (or cringy) jokes. The number of things Mycroft can do is growing daily. The developer community is creating quality skills that are easy to find and can be installed verbally or via the intuitive Mycroft Plasmoid GUI. As the integration with Mycroft matures, more core KDE applications will be able to provide an integrated experience. The possibilities are exciting, and the KDE Plasma platform is on the path to become the "futuristic" computer we've all dreamed of using!
The Ohio Linux Fest was held in Columbus, Ohio on September 29th and 30th, and gathered many FOSS enthusiasts from the central and northeastern regions of USA. KDE returned to the Ohio Linux Fest in 2017 with a sponsor booth and a talk by Swati Lodha about her experience contributing to digiKam in the Google Summer of Code program. Our booth featured a laptop running KDE Neon, and we showcased Plasma 5.10 which attracted a lot of attention. Some attendees stopped by to say they were satisfied Plasma users, while others visited the booth to try Plasma for the first time.
+The Ohio Linux Fest was held in Columbus, Ohio on September 29th and 30th, and gathered many FOSS enthusiasts from the central and northeastern regions of USA. KDE returned to the Ohio Linux Fest in 2017 with a sponsor booth and a talk by Swati Lodha about her experience contributing to digiKam in the Google Summer of Code program. Our booth featured a laptop running KDE Neon and showcased Plasma 5.10, attracting a lot of interest. Attendees expressed their satisfaction with Plasma while others visited the booth to try Plasma for the first time.
Many were impressed by how polished the user interface looked, and by Plasma’s performance on relatively modest hardware. We even had a visitor who decided to try it out that very night, and came back the next day with Plasma installed on his laptop! The Ohio Linux Fest was a great opportunity to present our products and talk to current and potential users about all the amazing work happening inside the KDE community. This is a rare opportunity in USA, since we have a smaller community there. Through events like this, we hope we’ll be able to spark enthusiasm in this important market and build an active community of KDE users and contributors.
+Many were impressed by how polished the user interface looked and by Plasma's performance on modest hardware. One visitor even decided to try it out that very night and came back the next day with Plasma running on his laptop! The Ohio Linux Fest was a great opportunity to present our products and talk to current and potential users about all the amazing work happening inside the KDE community. This is a rare opportunity in USA, since we have a smaller community there. Through events like this, we hope we'll be able to spark enthusiasm in this important market and build an active community of KDE users and contributors.
The KDE PIM Sprint took place in the spring of 2017, in Toulouse, France. We would like to thank Ekito, an open source-friendly software company for letting us organize the sprint in their Toulouse office, just like last year. This year we built on the work from our previous sprints, and focused on reducing library dependencies, creating a better internal architecture, and cleaning up the codebase. Volker Krause kept working on KDateTime/KTimeZone porting; the project he started last year with John Layt.
+The KDE PIM Sprint took place in the spring of 2017, in Toulouse, France. We would like to thank Ekito, an open source-friendly software company for letting us organize the sprint in their Toulouse office, just like last year. This year we built on the work from our previous sprints, and focused on reducing library dependencies, creating a better internal architecture, and cleaning up the codebase. Volker Krause kept working on KDateTime/KTimeZone porting; the project he started last year with John Layt.
On the Akonadi side, Dan Vratil fixed bugs in the Search feature. He began working on the implementation of server-side change-recording in the Akonadi server. Once it’s finished, this feature will bring a significant performance optimization and fix many of the current asynchronous problems. Our young project Zanshin has also seen some improvements. Franck worked on the task recurrence support, and Kevin prepared the new architecture planned for the 0.5.0 release. This design will introduce a cache system, leading to big performance improvements.
+On the Akonadi side, Dan Vratil fixed bugs in the Search feature. He began working on the implementation of server-side change-recording in the Akonadi server. This feature will bring a significant performance optimization and fix many of the current asynchronous problems. Our young project Zanshin has also seen some improvements. Franck worked on the task recurrence support, and Kevin prepared the new architecture planned for the 0.5.0 release. This design will introduce a cache system, leading to big performance improvements.
Volker also found the time to fix bugs related to handling cross-time zones or cross-DST recurring events in Korganizer. David, as usual, spent a lot of time debugging and improving KMail. Laurent focused on the Sieve Editor, and produced a new feature that allows importing sieve and IMAP configurations coming from KMail or Thunderbird. Sandro helped with splitting messageViewer and mimeTreeParser, and spent time trying to make the CI a better place.
+Volker also found the time to fix bugs related to handling cross-time zones or cross-DST recurring events in KOrganizer. David, as usual, spent a lot of time debugging and improving KMail. Laurent focused on the Sieve Editor, and produced a new feature that allows importing sieve and IMAP configurations coming from KMail or Thunderbird. Sandro helped splitting messageViewer and mimeTreeParser, and spent time trying to make the CI a better place.
Big thanks to all the participants - Franck Arrecot, David Faure, Sandro Knauß, Volker Krause, Laurent Montel, Kevin Ottens and Dan Vratil – for keeping the PIM sprint alive in 2017. The next PIM sprint will see us returning to Toulouse, where we will expand on our current objectives. Simplifying and optimizing the code is crucial for maintaining the PIM project, as well as for attracting new developers.
+Big thanks to all the participants ‒ Franck Arrecot, David Faure, Sandro Knauß, Volker Krause, Laurent Montel, Kevin Ottens and Dan Vratil ‒ for keeping the PIM sprint alive in 2017. The next PIM sprint will see us returning to Toulouse, where we will expand on our current objectives. Simplifying and optimizing the code is crucial for maintaining the PIM project, as well as for attracting new developers.
This year’s Plasma sprint took place in Stuttgart, Germany. It was kindly hosted by von Affenfels, a company specializing in web design and Qt-based mobile apps. During the sprint, we discussed design work, new app distribution methods, web browser integration, Plasma Mobile, and of course, Wayland. We've always relied on distributions to supply our applications and updates to our users.
+This year's Plasma sprint took place in Stuttgart, Germany. It was kindly hosted by von Affenfels, a company specializing in web design and Qt-based mobile apps. During the sprint, we discussed design work, new app distribution methods, web browser integration, Plasma Mobile, and of course, Wayland. We've always relied on distributions to supply our applications and updates to our users.
Now, we are building support for bundled application technologies such as Flatpak, Snap and AppImage, into Discover, Plasma’s software management center. We’re also integrating it into the KDE Store. Our goal is to give software developers more control over their application lifecycles, and make it possible for updates to reach their users more quickly. Bundles should also make it easier for users of other, non-Linux environments to install and update KDE applications.
+We are now building support for bundled application technologies such as Flatpak, Snap and AppImage, into Discover, Plasma's software management center. We're also integrating it into the KDE Store. Our goal is to give software developers more control over their application life-cycles, and make it possible for updates to reach their users more quickly. Bundles should also make it easier for users of other, non-Linux environments to install and update KDE applications.
Integration with web browsers in Plasma will improve by providing download progress and media controls for websites directly in the Plasma shell. It will also be possible to send links through KDE Connect. We discussed the use of touchpad and touchscreen gestures to control the window manager, so that specific multi-touch gestures can be used to trigger effects like the “Desktop Grid” and “Present Windows”, or to switch between virtual desktops. We’ve successfully run Plasma Mobile on the Nexus 5X. The previous reference device (Nexus 5) was getting dated and difficult to find on the market, so we felt that a new one was necessary. Although this is not strictly Plasma-related, we also made a push to get the KDE websites at www.kde.org updated to a modern look-and-feel, consistent with the Breeze design language. After all, we want to present our best face to the world. Finally, the Linux Action Show did an interview with the team at the sprint: Inside the Plasma Dev Den, so you can hear us talk about Plasma and get an even better taste of our development sprints.
+Integration with web browsers in Plasma will provide download progress and media controls for websites directly in the Plasma shell. It will also be possible to send links through KDE Connect. We discussed the use of touch-pad and touchscreen gestures to control the window manager so that specific multi-touch gestures can be used to trigger effects like the "Desktop Grid" and "Present Windows", or to switch between virtual desktops. We successfully ran Plasma Mobile on the Nexus 5X. Because the previous reference device (Nexus 5) was getting dated and difficult to find, we felt that a new one was necessary. Although this is not strictly Plasma-related, we also made a push to get the KDE websites at www.kde.org updated to a modern look-and-feel, consistent with the Breeze design language. We want to present our best face to the world. Finally, the Linux Action Show did an interview with the team at the sprint: Inside the Plasma Dev Den, where you can hear us talk about Plasma and get an even better taste of our development sprints.
At the very last day of QtCon ‒ one of the biggest Qt events in Europe, held at Berlin Convention Center in 2016 ‒ a group of three Brazilian KDE contributors started thinking about organizing the first Qt conference ever in Latin America. As a result, from 18th to 20th of August 2017, QtCon Brazil brought together almost 200 participants from the IT industry, universities, and governmental entities. The conference happened in São Paulo, the major financial hub in Brazil and the headquarters of big corporations, banks, universities and research centers. The first day of the conference was dedicated to training sessions. Sandro Andrade presented a session on "Developing Android Applications with Qt" and Cleiton Bueno was responsible for the session on "Developing Embedded Applications with Qt" with the valuable support of Toradex, one of the conference's sponsors. The training sessions were carried out in two groups of 20 participants, and focused on hands-on strategies for using Qt to power modern embedded and mobile applications. The training sessions were in high demand, and were totally sold out in only two weeks.
+On the last day of QtCon ‒ one of the biggest Qt events in Europe, held at Berlin Convention Center in 2016 ‒ a group of three Brazilian KDE contributors started thinking about organizing the first Qt conference ever in Latin America. As a result, from 18th to 20th of August 2017, QtCon Brazil brought together almost 200 participants from the IT industry, universities, and governmental entities. The conference was held in São Paulo, the biggest financial hub in Brazil and headquarters to big corporations, banks, universities and research centers. The first day was dedicated to training sessions. Sandro Andrade presented a session on "Developing Android Applications with Qt" and Cleiton Bueno was responsible for the session on "Developing Embedded Applications with Qt" with the valuable support of Toradex, one of the conference's sponsors. Training sessions were carried out in two groups of 20 participants, and focused on hands-on strategies for using Qt to power modern embedded and mobile applications. These training received heavy demand and were totally sold out within two weeks.
The second and third days were devoted to keynote talks, guest talks from prominent Qt players in Brazil, and community talks selected from the Call for Participation applications. In the opening session on Saturday, representatives from the sponsors and the organizing committee welcomed all participants and provided an overview of QtCon Brazil's goals and motivation, followed by a panel titled "What's Qt About?". Next on the schedule was a technical session about embedded Qt, where Cleiton Bueno talked about "Initializing and Handling Qt Applications in Linux", and Sergio Prado gave a presentation on "Creating a GNU/Linux distribution with Qt support for embedded devices". After lunch, the conference continued with a technical talk about "Qt Successful Use-Cases". Lamarque Souza (Petrosoft) introduced "Scientific Computing with Qt" and João Jardim, from Stone, presented their firm's experience in using Qt to develop POS (Point Of Sale) applications in a timespan of only six months.
+The second and third days were devoted to keynote talks, guest talks from prominent Qt players in Brazil, and community talks selected from the Call for Participation applications. During the opening session on Saturday, representatives from the sponsors and the organizing committee welcomed all participants and provided an overview of QtCon Brazil's goals and motivation, followed by a panel titled "What's Qt About?". Next on the schedule was a technical session about embedded Qt, where Cleiton Bueno talked about "Initializing and Handling Qt Applications in Linux", and Sergio Prado gave a presentation on "Creating a GNU/Linux distribution with Qt support for embedded devices". After lunch, the conference continued with a technical talk about "Qt Successful Use-Cases". Lamarque Souza (Petrosoft) introduced "Scientific Computing with Qt" and João Jardim, from Stone, presented their firm's experience in using Qt to develop POS (Point Of Sale) applications in a timespan of only six months.
Next, there were three talks about mobile development with Qt. Sandro Andrade (IFBA/KDE) talked about the challenges and current Qt solutions for developing mobile applications. Gustavo Boiko (SUSE) talked about "Using Telepathy and Qt to create instant messaging applications" and Tiago Salem presented "10 lessons on telephony/messaging application development with Qt". The day finished with a "Meet and Greet Reception", kindly sponsored by The Qt Company. The last conference day started with the keynote talk "Convergent applications with Kirigami", by Aleix Pol i Gonzàlez (Blue Systems/KDE), followed by the keynote talk "From Hackathon to production in one year", presented by Victor Kropp (JetBrains). Filipe Saraiva (UFPA/KDE) presented his experiences in "Extending Qt applications with KDE Frameworks 5" and Daniel Nicoletti (INDRA) presented the history and current status of Cutelyst, a high-performance Qt-based framework for developing web applications.
The conference proceeded with talks from community members. Flávio dos Anjos (UNESP) talked about "Using Qt to leverage the discovery of new drugs" and Rodrigo Coimba (Brazilian government's Tribunal Superior Eleitoral) presented how Qt has been used to support Brazilian elections. Eliakin Almeida (IFBA/KDE) talked about his experiences in using Qt and Python to extend applications. Gabriel Fedel (LNLS) talked about how Qt has been used to develop the basic control systems which support the Brazilian particle accelerator project. Lucas Lellis talked about wiRed Panda - a Qt-based teaching software for simulating digital circuits. Last but not least, Luis Barreto (O.S. Systems) talked about his experience in using Qt to develop embedded infotainment systems for cruise ships. This first edition of QtCon Brazil was a fruitful endeavor that has set the underpinnings to expand the Latin-American Qt user base, as well as to foster intercontinental relationships between Qt actors. Check here the complete photo set of QtCon Brazil 2017!
+The conference proceeded with talks from community members. Flávio dos Anjos (UNESP) talked about "Using Qt to leverage the discovery of new drugs" and Rodrigo Coimba (Brazilian government's Tribunal Superior Eleitoral) presented how Qt has been used to support Brazilian elections. Eliakin Almeida (IFBA/KDE) talked about his experiences in using Qt and Python to extend applications. Gabriel Fedel (LNLS) talked about how Qt has been used to develop the basic control systems which support the Brazilian particle accelerator project. Lucas Lellis talked about wiRed Panda ‒ a Qt-based teaching software for simulating digital circuits. Last but not least, Luis Barreto (O.S. Systems) shred his experience in using Qt to develop embedded infotainment systems for cruise ships. This first edition of QtCon Brazil was a fruitful endeavor that has set the underpinnings to expand the Latin-American Qt user base, as well as to foster intercontinental relationships between Qt actors. Check here the complete photo set of QtCon Brazil 2017!
QtCon Brazil 2017 was made possible thanks to the valuable support of The Qt Company, KDE, Stone, Toradex, openSUSE, and JetBrains.
The motto of our space at Qt World Summit 2017 was "Power up!". We put it into practice in more than one way and in the most literal of senses. First we designed our allocated space so that attendees could come, sit and relax, and recover their energies. We made sure there was ample sitting space with comfy cushions in an open and informal atmosphere. We also wanted to make it easy for visitors to power up their devices, so we placed plugs and USB charging stations all over our booth. Our visitors came, sat, chatted, re-charged their bodies, minds and devices, while at the same time finding out why KDE is the driving force behind many a software project. This turned out to be winning idea. A lot of people came by the "Power up!" space, and the buzz gave us the chance to demonstrate exactly how KDE could also power up their software and hardware projects. Many still perceive KDE exclusively as the creator of a desktop, but, at the ripe age of twenty, KDE is much more than that.
+Our motto at Qt World Summit 2017 was "Power up!". We put it into practice in more than one way and in the most literal of senses. We designed our allocated space so that attendees could come, sit and relax, and energize. We provided ample sitting space with comfy cushions in an open and informal atmosphere. To make it easy for visitors to power up their devices, we placed plugs and USB charging stations all over our booth. Our visitors came, re-charged their minds and devices, while learning how KDE is the driving force behind many software projects. This turned out to be winning idea. A lot of people came by the "Power up!" space, and the buzz gave us the chance to demonstrate exactly how KDE could also power up their software and hardware projects. Many still perceive KDE exclusively as the creator of a desktop, but, at the ripe age of twenty, KDE is much more than that.
Our most valuable asset is our community. The KDE community is the real power behind KDE's projects. The community fosters personal and professional development, helping programmers become better Qt developers in a welcoming environment. Also, just by contributing to KDE, you get to help us decide where we should take our projects next and help us keep KDE code up-to-date and secure. To prove our point, we had on display two examples of how KDE powers much more than desktop devices. We showed off the Pinebook running Plasma Desktop. The Pinebook is a low-cost ultra-netbook (only $99 for the 14'' version) built around the Pine, an ARM-based 64 bit single board computer ‒ similar to a the Raspberry Pi, but more powerful. The Pinebook is not only a good example of a cheap machine you can take anywhere, but also of how KDE technologies can provide a full-fledged working environment on all sorts of devices.
+Our most valuable asset is our community. The KDE community is the real power behind our projects. The community fosters personal and professional development, helping programmers become better Qt developers in a welcoming environment. Also, just by contributing to KDE, you get to help us decide where we should take our projects next and help us keep KDE code up-to-date and secure. To prove this point, we displayed two examples of how KDE powers much more than desktop devices. We showed off the Pinebook running Plasma Desktop. The Pinebook is a low-cost ultra-netbook (only $99 for the 14'' version) built around the Pine, an ARM-based 64 bit single board computer ‒ similar to a the Raspberry Pi, but more powerful. The Pinebook is not only a good example of a cheap machine you can take anywhere, but also of how KDE technologies can provide a full-fledged working environment on all sorts of devices.
Twenty years of development means that KDE has made many different kinds of software. Primary device UI, end-user apps, communication apps, business apps, content creation apps, mobile apps, and on and on. This means we have had to solve many problems and create many libraries in the process. Our libraries complement Qt and are very easy to use by any Qt-based application. Many have few or no dependencies aside from Qt itself. These libraries are free to use and licensed in a way that is compatible even with commercial apps. They also run on many different platforms. To leverage all the libraries and frameworks we have created, we have also built many development tools, including a full IDE that supports both static and dynamic languages (KDevelop), an advanced editor especially designed for developers (Kate), debugging tools (Kdbg, Massif Visualizer), etc. They all support Qt and C++ and again run on a variety of platforms.
+Twenty years of development have allowed KDE to provide many different kinds of software. Primary device UI, end-user apps, communication apps, business apps, content creation apps, mobile apps, and so on. We have solved many problems and created many libraries in the process. Our libraries complement Qt and are very easy to use by any Qt-based application. Many have few or no dependencies aside from Qt itself. These libraries are free to use and licensed in a way that is compatible even with commercial apps. They also run on many different platforms. To leverage all the libraries and frameworks we created, we built many development tools, including a full IDE that supports both static and dynamic languages (KDevelop), an advanced editor especially designed for developers (Kate), debugging tools (Kdbg, Massif Visualizer), etc. They all support Qt and C++ and again run on a variety of platforms.
To drive the matter home even more, visitors were also able to play with Plasma Mobile, our environment for smartphones. Plasma Mobile has been in the news recently thanks to the fact that Purism, manufacturers of high-end laptops that come with Linux pre-installed, and KDE have agreed to work together on the Librem 5, an open and privacy-respecting smartphone. As the Librem 5 hasn't been built yet, at QtWS 2017 we showed how Plasma Mobile works fine on an off-the-shelf device; in this case, a Nexus 5x. Plasma Mobile running on an actual device is living and breathing proof of the power KDE delivers to developers. Thanks to Halium, for example, you can sit different graphical environments (including Plasma Mobile) on top of an Android base, and Halium will manage communication between the graphical environment and the kernel. Then we have Kirigami, a framework that helps developers create apps that will work within all sorts of environments, not only on the Plasma Desktop. With Kirigami, you can deliver apps to the two Plasmas, Desktop and Mobile, Windows, MacOS X, Android, and iOS. These powerful technologies are developed and maintained by KDE, and are examples of how KDE can power up your projects.
+To drive the point home even more, visitors played with Plasma Mobile, our smartphone environment. Plasma Mobile has made headlines after Purism, the high-end Linux manufacturer, and KDE agreed to partner on Librem 5, an open and privacy-respecting smartphone. At Qt World Summit 2017, we showed how Plasma Mobile works fine on an off-the-shelf device like the Nexus 5x. Plasma Mobile running on an actual mobile device is a proof of the power that KDE delivers to developers. Thanks to Halium, you can sit different graphical environments (including Plasma Mobile) on top of an Android base, and Halium will manage communication between the graphical environment and the kernel. Then we have Kirigami, a framework that helps developers create apps that will work within many environments, not only on the Plasma Desktop. With Kirigami, you can deliver apps to the two Plasmas (Desktop and Mobile), Windows, MacOS X, Android, and iOS. These powerful technologies are developed and maintained by KDE, and are examples of how KDE can power up your projects.
- KDE are a welcoming and dynamic community. Their collaboration on Snap is forging the future of the Linux desktop - stable, secure and innovative. We can't wait to see what 2018 will bring KDE! + KDE are a welcoming and dynamic community. Their collaboration on Snap is forging the future of the Linux desktop ‒ stable, secure and innovative. We can't wait to see what 2018 will bring KDE!
Canonical
The KDE project is one of the essential pieces of the FLOSS desktop initiative, and we share goals in lots of areas ranging from document filter technologies to volunteer-driven governance. Both KDE and The Document Foundation are working in the OASIS technical committee for the OpenDocument format, and also collaborate on common aspects of development of office software, such as usability and visual design.
Thorsten Behrens, The Document Foundation
RKWard is a KDE GUI to the R language for statistical computing. Although RKWard is a long-standing project, it is still a relative newcomer to KDE, having spent its early years on SF.net hosting. This year the last big step in the process of moving to the KDE.org community has been completed by importing the RKWard bug-tracking into bugs.kde.org.
The developers will also move forward with integration into KDE.org automated builds. If you think you can help the project pick up the pace again, contact the developers on rkward-devel@kde.org - your contributions are more than welcome!
+The developers will also move forward with integration into KDE.org automated builds. If you think you can help the project pick up the pace again, contact the developers on rkward-devel@kde.org ‒ your contributions are more than welcome!
This would have not been possible without the help of the amazing and tireless Ben Cooksley. The developers had intended to wrap up 2017 with RKWard 0.7.0 as a first official release based on KF5, and formally enter the KDE.org review process. Unfortunately, real-life demands have been higher and the resources left for development thinner than anticipated. As a consequence, 2017 has been the first year since 2004 without a new release of RKWard. However, a lot has been happening behind the scenes. With the first successful builds on Windows and Mac (in addition to our primary platform, Linux), RKWard 0.7.0 is getting closer to its final form and many users are already using the unofficial development snapshots for their daily work. Aside from porting RKWard to a new version of KDE libraries, the developers have added significant new features, such as split views. In 2018, the remaining knots will hopefully be tied, and RKWard 0.7.0 will be released into the wild.
A friendly autumn gathering doubling as a productive developer sprint, Randa Meetings 2017 took place from 10 to 16 September in Switzerland. Prior to the sprint, the KDE Community ran a fundraiser to help cover the organization costs. The main theme of Randa Meetings 2017 was accessibility. Crucial but often neglected, accessibility benefits everyone, not just people with disabilities. That is why the developers set out to improve the navigation and assistive features in KDE software.
The developers of Kube worked on speeding up email synchronization, explored the options for making Kube cross-platform, and implemented a visualization in the configuration dialog that warns the user about invalid input. Kdenlive received color correction improvements, and the developers focused on porting Kdenlive to Windows and macOS, improving the usability of its features, and bringing back the popular TypeWriter effect.
+The developers of Kube worked on speeding up email synchronization, explored the options for making Kube cross-platform, and implemented a visualization in the configuration dialog that warns the user about invalid input. Kdenlive received color correction improvements, and developers focused on porting Kdenlive to Windows and macOS, improving the usability of its features, and bringing back the popular TypeWriter effect.
The results of their efforts greatly increased the quality of KDE software. KMyMoney received improvements to keyboard shortcuts, and the Plasma panel can now be controlled using voice feedback and the keyboard. The Krunner launcher supports integration with Orca Screen Reader, and the KWin team created a plugin that simulates different types of color blindness to help developers understand users' needs. Another experience that helped shed light on different types of users and their perspectives was a visit from Manuel, a deaf user from Italy. Manuel explained all kinds of problems that hearing-impaired users come across when using software. His feedback was extremely valuable in the context of the sprint's theme. As always, a lot of work was done outside of the main sprint theme. The KDE PIM team ported the entire Kontact codebase away from the obsolete KDateTime component, and worked on improving the stability of KMail's search features. All plugin KCM modules for KMyMoney were ported to KF5, and the backup functionality was revived. Marble Maps got a new splash screen, and the entire interface of the Bookmarks dialog was made responsive to touch. The Public Transport Plasma applet was completely rewritten as a Kirigami application, and is now much easier to adapt to mobile interfaces.
+KMyMoney received improvements to keyboard shortcuts, and the Plasma panel can now be controlled using voice feedback and the keyboard. Krunner now supports integration with Orca Screen Reader, and the KWin team created a plugin that simulates different types of color blindness to help developers understand users' needs. Another experience that helped shed light on different types of users and their perspectives was a visit from Manuel, a hearing-impaired user from Italy. Manuel explained many problems that hearing-impaired users come across when using software. His feedback was extremely valuable in the context of the sprint's theme. As always, a lot of work was done outside of the main sprint theme. The KDE PIM team ported the entire Kontact codebase away from the obsolete KDateTime component, and worked on improving the stability of KMail's search features. All plugin KCM modules for KMyMoney were ported to KF5, and the backup functionality was revived. Marble Maps got a new splash screen, and the entire interface of the Bookmarks dialog was made responsive to touch. The Public Transport Plasma applet was completely rewritten as a Kirigami application, and is now much easier to adapt to mobile interfaces.
2017 has been another busy year for the Sysadmin team. We continued building on our work from last year, eliminating older legacy systems, consolidating and modernising others, and rebuilding some parts to perform better. As part of these efforts, we converted several web applications into static sites. This ensures that their content will remain accessible in the future while eliminating most of the cost of keeping them online. Among notable accomplishments this year was the elimination of Drupal 6 and Debian Squeeze from our systems. For the first time in many years, we are now on software which is fully supported. We deployed a new server with more than 10 terabytes of usable storage, giving us plenty of capacity to handle growth on the mirror networks, maps, and Neon repositories. We also upgraded number of servers to the latest LTS versions of their distributions, ensuring that we stay on supported software going forward.
+2017 has been another busy year for the System Administration Team. We continued building on work from last year, eliminating older legacy systems, consolidating and modernizing others, and rebuilding some parts to perform better. We converted several web applications into static sites. This ensures that their content will remain accessible in the future while eliminating most of the cost of keeping them online. Among notable accomplishments this year was the elimination of Drupal 6 and Debian Squeeze from our systems. For the first time in many years, we are now running on fully-supported software. We deployed a new server with more than 10 terabytes of usable storage, giving us plenty of capacity to handle growth on the mirror networks, maps, and Neon repositories. We also upgraded number of servers to the latest LTS versions of their distributions, making sure that we stay on supported software going forward.
Continuous Integration was also an area that changed significantly this year. For the first time, we made available both FreeBSD and Windows builds. The system in general was refactored to make builds more reliable and to allow for more build options in the future. Thanks to this, limited Android builds are now also being performed for certain projects, and we can provide Frameworks builds against two different versions of Qt on Linux - something that has not been possible before.
+Continuous Integration was also an area that changed significantly this year. For the first time, we made available both FreeBSD and Windows builds. The general system was refactored to make builds more reliable and to allow for more build options in the future. Thanks to this work, limited Android builds are now also being performed for certain projects, and we can provide Frameworks builds against two different versions of Qt on Linux ‒ something that has not been possible before.
We set up a second Jenkins instance, known as the Binary Factory, as well. This service has already proven beneficial. It produces signed Windows installers for several KDE projects, making it easier for users to access our software and for developers to provide this option. The factory also produces a public Craft cache to make it faster and easier for developers to set up a local Windows build environment.
We have also made a number of incremental improvements elsewhere. During the year, we separated our transactional mail from all the other email our systems send. This is an important step in ensuring that those with restrictive mail providers can continue to participate in the community. We continued to work on the Phabricator setup, with all repositories (including Subversion) being registered in it, and tweaks made to the Phabricator configuration to make it work better for the community. We also completed a comprehensive review of our systems, including a full review of our backup processes. This helped us improve the consistency of our setup and eliminate further technical debt.
Developer accounts created
Developer accounts disabled
kdemail.net aliases created
kde.org aliases created
kde.org aliases disabled
kde.org aliases modified
kde.org mailing lists created
plasma-mobile, neon-notifications, atelier, advisory-board, heaptrack, elisa
kde.org mailing lists disabled
kde-i18n-fr, kde-licensing, inqlude, kde-sdk-devel, korganizer-devel, kde-solaris, bugsquad, kde-imaging, kde-policies
Over the past 21 years, the KDE community has been a space for sharing knowledge, creating innovative technology, and improving people's lives following the principles of Free Software. During our quite long history, with each passing year, KDE has become better at supporting contributors' interests and setting goals that benefit the community.
In 2017, KDE's presence spread in Asia, thanks in part to FOSSASIA and Hong Kong Open Source Conference, as well as in Latin-America ‒ QtCon Brazil was a great success. conf.kde.in has reached its 7th edition, and we had a remarkable presence at the Qt World Summit. Also in 2017, KDE had the pleasure of having Private Internet Access join our esteemed group of KDE Patrons, which already includes Blue Systems, Canonical, Google, SUSE, and The Qt Company.
As for KDE e.V.'s administrative and PR infrastructure ‒ in addition to the excellent work already done by Petra Gillert as the assistant of the KDE e.V. Board of Directors ‒ in 2017 two marketing contractors joined our team. The result is a considerable uplift in the way we communicate to our partners, users, and contributors.
This report brings together the most relevant achievements of KDE in 2017. KDE is a global and diverse community, and as such, we strive not only to sustain the pace of contributions in places with a well-established KDE culture, but also to foster the seed of FOSS initiatives in regions previously outside of KDE's radar.
In addition, we went through the process of asking for proposals, selecting, and announcing the winners of the KDE community's goals for the upcoming years. We believe this is a quite important effort to bring back unity and catalyze a uniform mindset over different KDE projects.
Have an excellent reading!
+Enjoy the reading!
Sandro Andrade
for the KDE e.V. Board of Directors
The annual WikiToLearn India Conference 2017 took place for the first time at The LNMIIT, Jaipur on January 18-19. A big thank-you is owed to the university that hosted us, and to all the speakers - Riccardo Iaconelli, Tony Thomas, Harish Navnit, Davide Valsecchi, Sagar Agarwal, Abhimanyu Singh Shekhawat, Haritha Harikumar, Chaithanya Krishnan, Jaminy Prabaharan, Amit Kumar Jaiswal, Jayaditya Gupta, Arnav Dhamija and Vnisha Srivastav - and all the participants who made this conference an awesome experience. The Conference was a single track event, so there was no distribution of audiences at the talks.
-The Keynote of the conference was given by Riccardo Iaconelli. He talked about the motive behind Richard Stallman’s idea of Open Source. He then briefed on how WikiToLearn is being adapted at European Universities and making it easier for students and professors for collaborative learning. He spoke on how the project is having powerful impact not only in Europe but also in the world with many universities involved and also organizations like KDE, Wikimedia Foundation and the CERN, about the power of collaboration and its impact in academia with the help of WikiToLearn.
+The annual WikiToLearn India Conference 2017 took place for the first time at The LNMIIT, Jaipur on January 18-19. A big "thank you" is owed to the university that hosted us, and to all the speakers ‒ Riccardo Iaconelli, Tony Thomas, Harish Navnit, Davide Valsecchi, Sagar Agarwal, Abhimanyu Singh Shekhawat, Haritha Harikumar, Chaithanya Krishnan, Jaminy Prabaharan, Amit Kumar Jaiswal, Jayaditya Gupta, Arnav Dhamija and Vnisha Srivastav ‒ and all the participants who made this conference an awesome experience. The Conference was a single track event, so there was just one room for the talks.
+Riccardo Iaconelli gave the first keynote. He talked about the motive behind Richard Stallman's idea of Open Source. He then briefed us on how WikiToLearn is being adapted at European Universities and making it easier for students and professors for collaborative learning. He spoke on how the project has powerful impact not only in Europe but also in the world. Many universities are involved and organizations like KDE, Wikimedia Foundation and CERN, about the power of collaboration and its impact in academia with the help of WikiToLearn.
Sagar, Abhimanyu, Jay, and Arnav talked about their Google Summer of Code projects, walked through the basic architecture of their projects, how it works, and how could one contribute to it and also gave have a fair idea of how much rewarding and fun it was to work on open source the entire summer. Tony’s talk was titled as Engaging and Bringing in new contributors to a community rather he focused on talking about how to really get started with contributions since the conference had lot of enthusiastic beginners who were willing to start contributing to open source. Harish’s talk was entitled as ‘Modern Day Makefile Generators’ where he imparted a basic familiarity to how large projects handle their dependencies and how a build system functions, in general. He talked in depth about Cmake and qmake, and how they are used in handling large projects.
+Sagar, Abhimanyu, Jay, and Arnav talked about their Google Summer of Code projects, walked through the basic architecture of their projects, how it works, and how one can contribute to it. They also provided an idea of how rewarding and fun it was to work on open source the entire summer. Tony's talk was titled "Engaging and Bringing in new contributors to a community". Focused on talking about how to really get started with contributions, the talk was very helpful since the conference had a lot of enthusiastic beginners willing to contribute to open source. Harish's talk was entitled "Modern Day Makefile Generators". He basically explained how large projects handle their dependencies and how a build system works in general. He talked in depth about CMake and qmake, and how they are used in handling large projects.
Davide joined us through a hangout session straight from Italy to give us a brief introduction on the WikiToLearn infrastructure and introducing TeXLa which is a minimal and easily extensible LaTeX parser to the participants. The rest of the day was just as eventful, with Haritha and Chaithanya along with Vnisha, speaking about the Wikimedia engine and on the social topic of connecting rural women on the internet, respectively, to mark the culmination of two days of enlightening knowledge exchange.
-On the final day, post dinner, the speakers and participants were provided entry to a musical concert of local folk singer Mame Khan which turned out to be a truly new and unique experience and that was a nice way to end the first ever WikiToLearn India conference.
+Davide joined through a hangout session straight from Italy to gave us a brief introduction on the WikiToLearn infrastructure. He also introduced TeXLa, a minimal and easily extensible LaTeX parser. The rest of the day was just as eventful, with Haritha and Chaithanya along with Vnisha, speaking about the Wikimedia engine and on the social topic of connecting rural women on the internet, respectively. This marked the culmination of two days of enlightening knowledge exchange.
+On the final day, the speakers and participants attended a musical concert of local folk singer Mame Khan. It turned out to be a truly new and unique experience. It was a nice way to end the first ever WikiToLearn India conference.
Akademy 2017
conf.kde.in 2017
Falkon
FOSSASIA 2017
Hong Kong Open Source Conference 2017
KDE Edu Sprint
Mycroft
Ohio Linux Fest 2017
KDE PIM Sprint
Plasma Sprint
QtCon Brazil 2017
Qt World Summit 2017
Randa Meetings 2017
WikiToLearn India conference