COMMUNITY REPORT 1 ST QUARTER, 2011 | ISSUE 17 WELCOME MESSAGE Dear Members, blood, sweat and tears from supports, thanks to the generous Contributors, Users Pradeepto and his team in India, it support of its donors, both private of KDE software, and happened—in March 2011, and corporate. After all, these Friends, conf.kde.in kicked off in Bengaluru, donations make it possible for India. The conference was a huge people like Pradeepto to organize Many moons ago, I first success, it brought KDE events like conf.kde.in. They also met Pradeepto, an Indian contributors closer together all help fund the many developer KDE hacker who would over the world, and attracted more sprints that happen on a regular amaze me with his sense brilliant minds into KDE. As a result, basis, and that have become of community and his the Indian KDE community is central to making leaps in the ability to mobilize people. growing like it never grew before, development of KDE software and Last year, Pradeepto sent providing new people, energy and tying the community closer an email to the KDE e.V. perspective to our community. together. board with the subject "A Pradeepto's dream came true. Dream". In this email, he Enjoy reading our report of the outlined that he had To me, Pradeepto really stands for first three months in 2011. wanted for years to core values in KDE—dreaming a organize a KDE dream, deciding together to make Sebastian Kügler conference in India. it come true, and putting your (on behalf of the KDE e.V. Board) shoulders under it to make it a We talked a bit about success. We are Pradeepto. how to make this possible. After solving In this quarterly report, you will administrative details left find an account of what happened KDE and right, collecting at conf.kde.in, and about many funds, and lots of other activities the KDE e.V. CONTENTS Welcome Message 1 The KDE Free Qt Foundation 2 – 3 What is the KDE Free Qt Foundation and why does it matter to the future of KDE? KDE Activities 4 – 9 Recaps from KDE sprints, trade shows, and other activities (including an in-depth report from conf.kde.in, KDE's first conference in India). New Members 10 Financial Report and KDE e.V. Board 11 KDE draws its developers, designers, and users from all over the world: Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. In March of this year, KDE e.V. helped to sponsor conf.kde.in, the first KDE conference in India. In this edition of the Community Report, our spotlight is on India. THE KDE FREE QT FOUNDATION Olaf Schmidt-Wischhöfer Most of KDE’s software uses a library named Qt. This Free Software toolkit can be considered the foundation for the KDE means that even if other companies contribute to the Development Platform, and therefore also for the KDE X11 version of Qt, Nokia is still obligated to release Plasma Workspaces and for KDE Applications. In other these contributions as Free Software and to grant a words, Qt is vitally important for KDE. So how do we full license to the KDE Free Qt Foundation. ensure that the Qt library stays available for KDE? HISTORY OF THE KDE FREE QT FOUNDATION There are two strong reasons why Qt is guaranteed to be always available to KDE. The Norwegian foundation was founded in 1998 by KDE e.V. and Trolltech, the company that used to The first guarantee is the license. Qt is available both develop Qt. under the LGPL 2.1 and under the GPL 3.0. These licenses contain wide-ranging distribution and In May 2004, a first update to the agreement was modification rights. The licenses were written by the made. This agreement addressed the purpose in a Free Software Foundation and are well-known for their more precise and complete way. The intention and legal quality. In the future, KDE will also be able to basic content, however, were not changed. In July shape new Qt versions by taking part in the 2009, the agreement was updated again to respond development process itself. Nokia, the company both to the relicensing of Qt to the LGPL license and to developing Qt, is moving Qt development to an “open the merger of Trolltech into Nokia. In November 2009, governance” model, which means that other interested the statutes of the Foundation were further updated to parties such as KDE can better participate in Qt better fit the new situation. development. The open governance model has the potential to bring together a large number of projects Additional changes to the agreements are planned, and companies that use Qt. such as extending the agreement to cover other platforms in addition to X11. The second guarantee is a legal structure named “KDE The foundation has two board members sent by the Free Qt Foundation”. Its purpose is to obligate Nokia to KDE Free Qt Foundation, two board members sent by make all changes to the X11 version of Qt available as Nokia, and the two Trolltech founders as non-voting Free Software. The agreement with Nokia also ensures advisory board members. In the case of a tie, KDE that Nokia will continue to release new Qt versions has an extra vote. More information about the KDE containing bug fixes, performance enhancements and Free Qt Foundation is available online at: new functionality. The legal contracts of the KDE Free Qt Foundation explicitly state that the contract stays KDE.ORG/COMMUNITY/WHATISKDE/ valid in case of a merger or buy-out, and also if the Qt library is renamed or re-defined in scope. This KDEFREEQTFOUNDATION (Left) William Desborough - Taj Mahal, Look:KDE. (Middle) Paul Rudd, Sikh pilgrim at the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib), Wikimedia Commons. (Right) PICQ, Kutia Kondh Woman, Wikimedia Commons. (Facing Page). (Top Left) Bobinson. Muchilottu Bhagavathy Theyyam, Wikimedia Commons. (Top Right) Bobinson, Bhadrakali Mudiyettu, Flickr. (Middle) Humayunn Peerzaada, Haji Ali Dargah in the Mahim Bay of Mahalaxmi, Wikimedia Commons. (Bottom Left) Bobinson, Bhadrakali Mudiyettu, Flickr. (Bottom Right) Ajay Kumar, Golden Budha Temple at Coord, India, (Gautama Buddha Temple, Coorg Karnataka, India) Look:KDE. KDE eV Community Report | Issue 17 | 1st Quarter, 2011 ev.kde.org/reports 3 KDE ACTIVITIES Developer Sprints for exporting free/busy demonstrated notetaker, his new information that will support more application to manage notes, calendars like DAV and eventually events and todos easily. Ingo KDE PIM MEETING Exchange. Klöcker has completed the OSNABRÜCK migration of the PIM website February 2011 During the sprint, support was (community.kde.org/KDE_PIM) to a started for Facebook as a data wiki. Thomas McGuire source for contacts, events and more. With multiple contact The meeting was a great sources, the address book of a opportunity to see old and new user might contain the same community members face-to-face, person more than once, and which improves collaboration a lot. In February, the KDE PIM team got therefore ideas and plans for together in Osnabrück for their 9th contact merging with the help of annual meeting, which was kindly Nepomuk were discussed. KONTACT IS A LARGE hosted by Intevation GmbH. Several interesting projects were SUITE OF APPLICATIONS One of the key issues covered was presented. Kontact Touch, the the release of the first Akonadi- version of Kontact for devices with THAT MAKES IT EASIER based KDEPIM. Some blocking touch screens, was presented on bugs, for example in data several gadgets, including a TO ORGANIZE PERSONAL migration, were identified and Windows CE phone and a MeeGo INFORMATION THAT IS fixed, increasing the likelihood of a tablet. Cornelius Schumacher release in the near future. showed Polka, his innovative new DEVELOPED BY THE KDE Architectural points were also address book user interface, and addressed, such as a new design new member Christian Mollekopf PIM TEAM. THE KDE PIM SPRINT ALLOWS THE DEVELOPERS OF THESE PROGRAMS TO COME TOGETHER, COORDINATE, AND SOLVE COMMON CHALLENGES. (Left) The KDE Games Developers. From left to right Josef, Laszlo, Felix, Shantanu, Arjen, Dan, Stefaqn, Friedrich, Julian and Jeffrey. Photo by Felix Lemke. (Bottom) A few of the participants who took part in KDE conferences and developer sprints. Photographs taken by Kushal Das. THE KDE GAMES TEAM HAS BEEN WORKING ON TWO TECHNOLOGIES, GGZ AND GLUON, WHICH ALLOW FOR MUCH BETTER NETWORK GAMING AND EASIER DEVELOPMENT. KDE eV Community Report | Issue 17 | 1st Quarter, 2011 ev.kde.org/reports 4 KDE GAMES MEETING create a libkdegames "2.0" that Trade Shows and makes the existing codebase DRESDEN competitive and easier to maintain Community Events March 2011 for the next few years. The other Stefan Majewsky host, Josef Spillner, presented his FOSDEM 2011 work on the GGZ project which BRUSSELS, BELGIUM enables gaming over the network 5-6 February and creates client and server tools Just before the end of the first for managing social networks of Jonathan Riddell quarter of 2011, ten developers gamers. GGZ technology is gathered in Dresden to discuss and already available in a handful of implement the future of KDE KDE Games, but the existing KGGZ Games. The local KDE community libraries need an update. Delivery KDE were, as always, present at was well represented by four by Tagaro is expected in the near FOSDEM in 2011, the largest free developers, plus two from the future. software developer meeting in nearby German capital, Berlin. Europe. In the expo, we Gluon, the other ongoing library demonstrated the 4.6 releases, While the local students Felix effort in the KDE Games Kontact Touch, Plasma Netbook, Lemke and Jeffrey Kelling used the community, was represented by KDE on Windows and KDE on Mac.