KDE

K Desktop Environment
Developer(s)The KDE Team
Stable release
6.6.5 / 12 May 2026
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeDesktop environment
LicenseGNU General Public License and others
Websitewww.kde.org

KDE is a community that makes 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 uses the X Window System and Wayland, which runs on many UNIX-like operating systems, most notably Linux. Since KDE SC 4.0, many KDE programs also run on Microsoft Windows and MacOS.

KDE releases

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

Timeline of when KDE was released.
DateRelease
KDE 1
14 October 1996 Project announced by Matthias Ettrich
12 July 1998 KDE 1.0 released
6 February 1999 KDE 1.1 released
KDE 2
23 October 2000 KDE 2.0 released
26 February 2001 KDE 2.1 released
15 August 2001 KDE 2.2 released
KDE 3
3 April 2002 KDE 3.0 released
28 January 2003 KDE 3.1 released
3 February 2004 KDE 3.2 released
19 August 2004 KDE 3.3 released
16 March 2005 KDE 3.4 released
29 November 2005 KDE 3.5 released
KDE 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

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:

References

  1. ↑ "KDE Plasma 6.6.5, Bugfix Release for May". 12 May 2026.
  2. ↑ Matthias Ettrich original posting
  3. ↑ K Desktop Environment - KDE 1.0 Release Announcement
  4. ↑ KDE News Archive for February 1999 Archived 2008-12-22 at the Wayback Machine referring to the release of version 1.1
  5. ↑ K Desktop Environment - KDE 2.0 Release Announcement
  6. ↑ KDE press release for version 2.1
  7. ↑ KDE press release for version 2.2
  8. ↑ KDE press release for version 3.0
  9. ↑ KDE press release for version 3.1
  10. ↑ KDE press release for version 3.2
  11. ↑ KDE press release for version 3.3
  12. ↑ KDE press release for version 3.4
  13. ↑ KDE press release for version 3.5
  14. ↑ "KDE 4.0 Release Schedule". Retrieved 2008-09-12.
  15. ↑ "KDE 4.1 Release Schedule". Retrieved 2008-08-29.
  16. ↑ "KDE 4.2 Release Schedule". Retrieved 2009-01-27.
  17. ↑ "KDE 4.3 Released". 4 August 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  18. ↑ "KDE 4.4 Released". 9 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-18.

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