History of KDE/da

Qt, det GUI-værktøjssæt, som bruges til at skabe KDE kom oprindeligt ikke under en fundstændigt fri softwarelicens, da Trolltech også havde en kommerciel afeling. Den vigtigste konsekvens af dette var, at proprietære programmer lavet til KDE skulle have en licens fra Trolltech, skaberne af Qt, og enhver opgradering af Qt skulle gå gennem Trolltech. Da KDE er et opensource-projekt, så har det skabt kontroverser blandt opensource-purister, at vi valgte Qt. Qt er nu kommet under GPL, så disse argumenter er blevet forældede, men er stadig en del af KDE's historie.

Hvorfor valgte KDE's udviklere Qt?

• Qt er det bedste værktøjssæt til brugerflader, som er tilgængelig på UNIX-platforme. En skrivebordsplatforms succes afhænger kritisk af tilgængeligheden af programmer. Brugen af Qt ville fremme udviklingen af programmer og således af KDE.
• Qt, og herunder også dets kildekode, kan bruges uden betaling af enhver til udvikling og distribuering af fri software.
• Vi tilskynder aktivt kommercielle softwareproducenter til at udvikle programmer til KDE. Disse firmaer har brug for et veludviklet værktøjssæt af høj kvalitet og med teknisk support. Ingen af de GPL'ede værktøjssæt kunne have opfyldt disse krævende betingelser.
• At skabe en LGPL'et udgave af Qt's værktøjssæt, hvis kvalitet var på højde med Trolltechs implementation ville tage tid og blev prioriteret lavt i forhold til at skabe et brugbart, frit og åbent skrivebord.

KDE Free Qt Foundation

To tackle this problem, the KDE Free Qt Foundation was founded by the KDE project and Trolltech. This foundation ensured the continued availability of Qt as a free software development framework. Namely, should Trolltech no longer make Qt available for free software, the currently released version will be re-released under the BSD style license - a license similar in nature but less restrictive than the GPL or LGPL.

This decision to re-release would be moderated by a team of 2 members representing the KDE foundation (unaffiliated with Trolltech) and 2 members from Trolltech to vote. In case of a tie, the KDE vote will gain higher weighting.

The Harmony Project

Those who prioritised the release of an GPL licensed formed the Harmony project - a project to clone Qt under a GPL license. Rapid progress was made during its time and thus gave purists no excuse to reject KDE as a respectable and compliant desktop environment. However this project was depreciated as Trolltech made the decision to re-license Qt under the GPL.

Significant Dates in the History of KDE software

12 July 1998 - KDE 1.0 Announcement "An integrated Desktop Environment for the Unix Operating System. We are pleased to announce the availability of release 1.0 of the KDesktop Environment"

23 October 2000 - KDE 2.0 released "The KDE Team today announced the release of KDE 2.0, KDE's powerful, modular, Internet-enabled desktop. This highly anticipated release constitutes the next generation of the award-winning KDE 1 series, which culminated in the release of KDE 1.1.2 just over a year ago. KDE 2.0 is the work product of hundreds of dedicated developers originating from over 30 countries. "

17 December 2001 - KOffice 1.1.1 Released "Currently KOffice has functionality well-suited for home and SOHO users, who generally write letters, faxes, memos and similar documents. KOffice 1.1.1 is a minor update release for KOffice 1.1."

3 April 2002 - KDE 3.0 Released "KDE 3.0 is a major step for the KDE project. A hundred words could be written here, but to stop boring you with details, lets just say: Check it out!"

11th May 2007 - KDE 4.0 Alpha 1 Released "KDE Project Ships First Alpha Release for Leading Free Software Desktop."

16th October 2007 - KDE 3.5.8 Released "Project Ships Eighth Translation and Service Release for Leading Free Software Desktop."

11th January 2008 - KDE 4.0 Released "KDE Community Ships Fourth Major Version for Leading Free Software Desktop."

19th February 2008 - KDE 3.5.9 Released "KDE Community Ships Ninth Maintenance Update for Third Major Version for Leading Free Software Desktop."

29th July 2008 - KDE 4.1 Released "KDE Community Ships Major Update to Leading Free Software Desktop."

26th August 2008 - KDE 3.5.10 Released "KDE Community Ships Tenth Maintenance Update for Third Major Version for Leading Free Software Desktop."

12th October 2008 - KDE Forum Launched "KDE Launches Web-based Bulletin Board."

27th January 2009 - KDE 4.2.0 Released "KDE Community Ships Second Major Update To Leading Free Software Desktop."

4th August 2009 - KDE 4.3.0 Released "KDE Community Ships Third Update to the KDE 4 Desktop, Applications and Platform."

9th February 2010 - KDE SC 4.4.0 Released "KDE announces the immediate availability of the KDE Software Compilation 4.4, "Caikaku", bringing an innovative collection of applications to Free Software users."

10th August, 2010 - KDE 4.5.0 released Focusing on "stability, the overall polish and performance gain".

For a more detailed look at the history, including details of all the KDE 3.x releases, see this page