KDE für digitale Souveränität
Regaining independence from tech giants since 1996
Entwickelt von Menschen, für Menschen
KDE is a global community of volunteers who create free and open source software for everyone to use and enjoy. Unlike other software creators, we are a non-profit organization that does not seek to make money, but to make the world a better place. We envision a world where monopolistic corporations and repressive governments don't have so much power over our digital lives. We actually care about privacy and digital well-being, and we fight to protect user rights. KDE e.V., the association behind KDE, is a non-profit based in Germany.
Open Source and Transparency
KDE software is entirely open-source, meaning its code is publicly accessible and can be examined, modified, or redistributed by anyone. This transparency helps users and researchers verify that the software is free of malicious features sometimes found in proprietary software, such as spyware, backdoors, and advertising.
We also host our entire infrastructure ourselves, relying only on open-source software.
Independence from Big Tech Ecosystems
KDE software runs on multiple operating systems (like Linux, BSD, Android, and even Windows), giving users the freedom to choose a platform that aligns with their needs and values. This flexibility is particularly valuable for digital sovereignty, as it enables governments and organizations to avoid being locked into specific operating systems, hardware, or cloud platforms that could lead to dependency on foreign companies. KDE also supports open standards and protocols as much as possible.
By avoiding lock-in with large tech companies, KDE users retain the ability to migrate systems and data as they see fit, which is a key factor in maintaining control over digital assets.
Strong Internationalization and Localization
KDE has extensive language support and can be easily localized for different countries and regions, making it accessible and practical for governments and organizations worldwide. This is particularly relevant for digital sovereignty initiatives in non-English-speaking regions, as it allows them to adopt KDE software adapted to their linguistic and cultural needs.
Janayugom is a Malayalam (a South-Indian language spoken in Kerala) daily newspaper who switched to KDE and Scribus for their support for unicode and Malayalam fonts and stopped relying on old version of Adobe software. Read the full story.
In 2000 the Norwegian Language Council encouraged people to boycott Microsoft and to use KDE instead, as they could contribute translations for both written standards of Norwegian language Bokmål and Nynorsk, which wasn't the case for Windows at that time.
System Settings in Ukrainian
Einsatz im öffentlichen Bereich
Lliurex, a KDE-based operating system, has been used across the entire Valencian public school system in Spain since 2005, one of the largest and longest-running KDE deployments in public administration.
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is currently prototyping a Linux-based desktop rollout for its public administration, with KDE’s technology stack among the strong contenders.
Kleopatra is another example of KDE software in the public sector. It’s bundled as part of GnuPG VS-Desktop®®, built on KDE PIM, which are certified by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for handling restricted data and compliant with the German VS-NfD and EU/NATO RESTRICTED classifications. They’re used by many companies and administrations across Europe, including defense companies securing sensitive NATO documents, to communicate securely.
Adoption in Research Institutions
KDE’s software is increasingly being adopted in research institutions and universities around the world. Academic environments benefit from KDE's open-source, customizable, and privacy-focused software, which supports a wide range of educational, research, and administrative activities.
At the ALBA Synchrotron in Barcelona, Spain, one of Europe’s largest research facilities, Plasma runs on the majority of control-room desktops. NASA has used KDE in its mission control rooms since the early 2000s, including the Mars rover landings and the InSight mission, and still does today. NERC’s Space Geodesy Facility and the LIGO Hanford Observatory also run KDE software, including Plasma and Konsole, on their scientific workstations.
KDE’s highly customizable software allows universities and research institutions to tailor the environment to their specific needs. This allows them to configure desktops for specialized lab setups, adjust privacy settings, and install necessary software packages for different research disciplines.
Einsatz im privaten Bereich
KDE’s KWin compositing window manager and KDE Frameworks libraries power MBUX, the infotainment software in Mercedes-Benz’s latest electric vehicles, developed by MBition. MBition uses KDE’s technology and know-how for its products to avoid being reliant on a third-party automotive system.
Read more about MBition collaboration with KDE
Valve’s Steam Deck, a handheld gaming console that runs on a custom Linux-based OS (SteamOS), uses KDE Plasma as its desktop environment. KDE Plasma’s lightweight and flexible nature makes it an excellent choice for the Steam Deck.
A Complete Sovereign Stack
Digital sovereignty is not just about the desktop: it’s about every layer of the stack that a government or organization depends on. KDE software is built to interoperate with other independent open-source projects through open standards, so organizations can assemble a fully self-hosted alternative to Big Tech ecosystems, rather than replacing one form of lock-in with another.
KDE Plasma can be paired with Nextcloud for file storage, calendars, and groupware; Matrix (via KDE’s own NeoChat) offers federated, encrypted messaging; and LibreOffice or Collabora Online handle documents. Every layer speaks open standards such as CalDAV/CardDAV, IMAP, ODF, and Matrix, instead of proprietary ones. This ensures that no single vendor — including KDE — holds all the keys. Organizations can self-host each component, choose a different vendor for each one, and migrate or replace any piece without touching the rest of the stack.
This is the same model behind national initiatives such as Germany’s openDesk, which bundles projects like Nextcloud, Collabora, and Element into a complete digital workplace. On the desktop side, KDE’s Kiosk framework lets administrators centrally configure and lock down Plasma at scale, while Kleopatra provides PGP/S-MIME encryption and smart-card support for secure communication, making Plasma a natural desktop client for exactly this kind of sovereign stack.
Compliance
Governments and institutions evaluating KDE often have specific compliance questions: data protection obligations, vulnerability disclosure processes, long-term support (LTS) windows, or accessibility conformance. Our Compliance page answers these directly, including our lack of a GDPR processor relationship, our commitment to accessibility and sustainability, how security issues are reported and publicly tracked, and the current support window for Plasma’s current LTS release.
This technology is available to you
Whether you run a business, a government department, or are an individual in need of a secure, privacy-preserving solution, KDE has something for you.
All of KDE's technology is available as free software to businesses, institutions, and individuals. You can deploy it yourself, purchase devices with KDE software pre-installed, get help from experts, or choose from powerful frameworks for your own development.
If you're a government department, business, or institution evaluating KDE for a deployment or partnership, talk to us; the KDE e.V. board is happy to discuss your needs.
There are no licenses, no subscriptions, and no requirements to use KDE services. However, if you find our technology useful, you can support KDE by becoming a patron or donating to our community and help ensure that KDE can continue to provide free, ethical software that everyone can use.