This October, KDE will turn 30 and they're celebrating with an extra funding drive to try and attract more regular donation support.
KDE Plasma is one of the most popular Linux desktop environments around. Plasma is used for the Desktop Mode on SteamOS which includes the Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Steam Frame. It's also my personal favourite desktop for the style and customization while remaining familiar.
According to their donation page most of their funding at "70%" comes from private end users. They use this money to directly fund developers to work on KDE open source projects like Plasma and all this:
- A solid infrastructure for developers, translators, and other contributors.
- Contractors (marketeers, event planners, lawyers, accountants) to carry out specialized tasks.
- To fund contributors travelling expenses so everybody has a chance to participate in the community.
- To pay to attend events and for material for booths.
- To commission artwork and designs.
- Targeted development.
The whole internet owes a fair bit to KDE, as they built the original engine that powers most web browsers too. It was the basis for Apple's Webkit, which ended up as the initial core of Google's Blink for Chrome too.
The KDE team are hoping to jump from 1,200 supporting members to at least cross over the 1,500 mark. At time of writing their page notes they now have 1,265 members.
On top of that there's various parties going on around the world to celebrate the 30 years of existence. And they're hoping to see more people celebrate with them.
See more on their dedicated page. You can set up regular donations or send them a one-off sum.
In the next few years I'm most excited to see a proper release of KDE Linux, their own operating system to showcase the very best of KDE and Plasma.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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