# What is &kde;?

&kde; is a desktop environment. In other words, &kde; is a collection of programs, technologies and documentation that attempt to make life easier for computer users. &kde; is targeted at &UNIX; workstations. It features network transparency and a contemporary work philosophy.

The creators of the K Desktop Environment are a world-wide group of software engineers. This group's major goal in free software development is to provide high quality software that empowers the user with easy control of his computer's resources.

&kde; seeks to fill the need for an easy to use desktop for &UNIX; workstations, similar to the desktop environments found under &MacOS; or &Windows; 95/NT. &kde; meets the requirement of users for an easy to use work environment. Tools used to reach this end are: enhanced inter-application communication, component reuse, generalized drag and drop, uniform look and feel and many more. Thus, &kde; offers much more than the traditional &UNIX; window managers.

Stability, scaleability and openness are qualities which have made &UNIX; the undisputed choice for the information technology professional for many years. &kde; builds on top of this excellent base framework and brings new, much needed qualities: usability, user friendliness and beauty! &kde; was the first, and stays the forefront player in bringing these qualities to &UNIX;, which constituted for years, the premier platform for server computers and scientific institutions, but wasn't very attractive for desktop users.

Without &UNIX; the Internet would not exist, or at least would have a vastly different form. &UNIX; has not, until now, addressed the needs of the average computer user. This fact is particularly unfortunate, since a number of implementations of &UNIX; (&Linux;, FreeBSD, NetBSD, etc) are freely available on the Internet, all of which are of exceptional quality and stability.

## &kde; The Desktop Environment

In combination with a free implementation of &UNIX;, &kde; provides to the world an open and completely free desktop computing platform either at home or at work.

This platform is available to anyone free of charge including its source code for anyone to modify.

While there will always be room for improvement we believe we have now delivered a viable alternative to some of the more commonly found and commercial operating systems/desktops combinations available today. It is our hope that the combination of &UNIX; and &kde; will finally bring the same open, reliable, stable, and monopoly free computing to the average computer user that scientists and computing professionals world-wide have enjoyed for years.

## &kde; The Application Development Framework

&kde; focuses on the user's needs, but it's obvious that this focus is more easily achieved by also giving developers the best tools. &kde; code contains, and comes with, some of the best development technologies of the modern computing age.

Authoring applications under &UNIX;/X11 used to be an extremely tedious and labor intensive process. &kde; recognizes the fact that a computing platform is only as good as the number of first class applications available to the users of that particular platform.

&kde; defines new technologies in &DCOP; and KParts, created to offer a component document model and technology. Together with the complete &kde; libraries programming interface, &DCOP;/KParts are set in direct competition with other similar technologies like &Microsoft; MFC/COM/ActiveX technologies. The excellent quality and the high level of refinement of &kde;'s application programming interface (API) enables developers to focus on original and interesting issues and avoid reinventing the wheel.

## &kde; The Office Application Suite

In its current form, &kde; provides, apart from the essential desktop component applications, a suite of powerful office programs known to the world by the name &koffice;.

&koffice; is based on the &kde; &DCOP;/KParts technologies. It currently contains: a word processor with desktop publishing capabilities (&kword;), a spreadsheet application (&kspread;) and accompanying charting program (&kchart;), a presentation program (&kpresenter;) and a vector drawing program (&kontour;). Tying things together is the KOffice Workspace, an integrated shell to ease the use of the &koffice; components in conjunction with each other. Additional components include an email client, a news reader, and a powerful PIM (Personal Information Manager - an organizer).

While some of those components are still in alpha development, others are already extremely powerful. For example, &kpresenter;, &kde;'s presentation application, was successfully used at the 5th International &Linux; Congress in Cologne, Germany to deliver a &kde; presentation.

We would like to invite you to learn more about &kde; and &koffice;.