History of KDE/fr

Qt, l'outil graphique utilisé pour créer les applications KDE n'était pas à l'origine sous une licence logicielle entièrement libre du fait que Trolltech possédait aussi un bras commercial. Les principales conséquences de ceci étaient que les programmes propriétaires créés pour KDE avaient besoin d'une licence de Trolltech, les créateurs de Qt, et que beaucoup de mises à jour de Qt devaient passer par Trolltech. Comme les logiciels KDE sont des projets libres, le choix de l'utilisation de Qt a créé de la controverse chez les puristes du logiciel libre. Qt a été re-licencié sous la GPL et ces disputes sont devenues obsolètes, mais sont une partie importante de l'histoire de KDE.

Pourquoi les développeurs de KDE ont-il choisi Qt ?

• Qt est le meilleur outil graphique disponible sur les plateformes UNIX. Le succès d'un environnement de bureau dépend de manière critique sur la disponibilité de ses applications. L'utilisation de Qt a poussé le développement des applications, et ainsi KDE.
• Qt est disponible gratuitement pour tout le monde, y compris son code source, pour le développement et la distribution de logiciels libres.
• Nous encourageons activement les entreprises de logiciels commerciaux à développer des applications pour KDE. Ces entreprises ont besoin d'un outil et d'un support technique mûrs et de bonne qualité. Aucun des autres outils GPL n'aurait été capable d'atteindre ces besoins d'exigence.
• Créer une version LGPL de l'outil Qt qui aurait atteint la qualité de l'implémentation de Trolltech aurait pris du temps et a été jugé d'une priorité plus faible que la créaton d'un bureau utilisable, gratuit et libre dans un premier temps.

La Fondation KDE Free Qt

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".

26th January 2011 - KDE SC 4.6.0 Released Major updates to the KDE Plasma workspaces, KDE Applications and KDE Platform

27th July 2011 - KDE 4.7.0 released Containing compelling new features and improvements to the Plasma Workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Development Platform

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