KDE

KDE is a community that produces free software, including a desktop environment called KDE Plasma for operating systems based on Linux or UNIX. This replaces the console, which is simply a black screen with text on it. KDE Plasma is a popular piece of software for users of Linux and UNIX.

Plasma runs on top of the X Window System, which runs on top of any UNIX-like operating systems like Linux and Mac OS X. 
Since KDE SC 4.0, many KDE programs also run on Microsoft Windows.

 KDE releases 
The following table lists when each version of KDE was released.

Timeline of when KDE was released.Date  ReleaseKDE 1 14 October 1996 Project announced by Matthias EttrichMatthias Ettrich original posting 12 July 1998 KDE 1.0 releasedK Desktop Environment - KDE 1.0 Release Announcement 6 February 1999 KDE 1.1 releasedKDE News Archive for February 1999  referring to the release of version 1.1KDE 2 23 October 2000 KDE 2.0 releasedK Desktop Environment - KDE 2.0 Release Announcement 26 February 2001 KDE 2.1 releasedKDE press release for version 2.1 15 August 2001 KDE 2.2 releasedKDE press release for version 2.2KDE 3 3 April 2002 KDE 3.0 releasedKDE press release for version 3.0 28 January 2003 KDE 3.1 releasedKDE press release for version 3.1 3 February 2004 KDE 3.2 releasedKDE press release for version 3.2 19 August 2004 KDE 3.3 releasedKDE press release for version 3.3 16 March 2005 KDE 3.4 releasedKDE press release for version 3.4 29 November 2005 KDE 3.5 releasedKDE press release for version 3.5KDE 4 11 January 2008 KDE 4.0 released 29 July 2008 KDE 4.1 released 27 January 2009 KDE 4.2 released 4 August 2009 KDE 4.3 released 9 February 2010 KDE 4.4 released

 Applications 
350px|right|thumb|The Kontact personal information manager and Konqueror file manager/web browser running on KDE 3.5.
There are several major applications for KDE. These include:

 Amarok - Music player
 K3b - CD burner
 Kate - Text editor
 KDevelop - A program for making software
 Konsole - Terminal emulator
 Kontact - Personal information manager that has an e-mail client, a news client, a feed aggregator, To-do lists and more.
 Kopete - Instant messaging client
 Konqueror - File manager and web browser
 KOffice - Office suite
Dolphin - File manager

 References 

 Other websites 

 Official KDE website