KDE Desktop Is Show Favorite at LinuxWorld Expo

Tuesday, 22 August 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GNU/Linux Users Speak: KDE Is the Best Desktop for GNU/Linux^®

August 22, 2000 (The INTERNET). KDE, the most advanced and user-friendly desktop for GNU/Linux - UNIX^® operating systems, was honored as Show Favorite in the Desktop category at the LinuxWorld Expo, held in San Jose, California last week.

KDE developers and supporters were delighted KDE was selected the best desktop by GNU/Linux users. "KDE development has always been dedicated to meeting the needs of users, and this award from GNU/Linux users proves this dedication is appreciated," said Dirk Hohndel, Vice President of XFree86, Inc. and CTO of SuSE Linux AG. "We believe that KDE and KOffice form an unparalleled next-generation GNU/Linux desktop and will pave the way to the widespread acceptance of GNU/Linux for desktop users."

"And the best is yet to come", added Matthias Ettrich, founder of the KDE project. "Tomorrow we will announce the availability of the fourth beta release for KDE 2. KDE 2, scheduled for final release in mid-fourth quarter, is a next-generation, component-based desktop which will set new standards of quality and ease of use for a UNIX desktop. It will also provide an advanced, developer-friendly platform for both free and proprietary software."

This award reaffirms that KDE is the desktop of choice for GNU/Linux users. In two surveys (1, 2) conducted by Borland last year, over half of the respondents indicated they run KDE as their desktop environment. Moreover, KDE has earned many other awards, including:

• "Innovation of the Year 1998/99" in the category "Software" at CeBIT, the world's largest computer trade fair;
• "Readers' Choice awards for 1999" for best "Window Manager" from the Linux Journal;
• "Editor's Choice Award" in the "Desktop Environment" category from LinuxWorld;
• "Editor's Choice Awards" for "Most Promising Software Newcomers" from the Linux Gazette; and
• "Best Of the Net" award for two consecutive years from The Mining Company.

About KDE

KDE's major contributions to GNU/Linux - UNIX are ease of installation, configuration, use and development. KDE provides users of all nationalities with an attractive, functional and intuitive desktop based on reusable components and network transparency. It also provides a framework for applications that provide a consistent, yet highly customizable, look-and-feel.

For the developer, KDE also offers the best Open Source development platform featuring an assortment of superb Open Source, free development tools such as KDevelop, KDE Studio, and Trolltech's Qt Designer, and commercial ones such as Borland's Kylix, the Linux version of Delphi.

KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers worldwide. Currently development is focused on KDE 2, which will for the first time offer a fully object-oriented, component-based desktop and office suite. KDE 2 promises to make the GNU/Linux desktop as easy to use as the popular commercial desktops while staying true to open standards and empowering developers and users with quality Open Source software.

For more information about KDE, please visit KDE's web site.