KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that enable collaborative work on its projects. Its products include the KDE Plasma graphical shell, KDE Frameworks, and the KDE Gear range of applications including Kate, digiKam, and Krita. Many KDE applications are cross-platform and can run on Unix and Unix-like operating systems as well as Microsoft Windows. KDE is legally represented by KDE e.V. based in Germany, which also owns the KDE trademarks and funds the project.
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In this Dossier
KDE in the context of Graphical user interface
A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation. In many applications, GUIs are used instead of text-based UIs, which are based on typed command labels or text navigation. GUIs were introduced in reaction to the perceived steep learning curve of command-line interfaces (CLIs), which require commands to be typed on a computer keyboard.
The actions in a GUI are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements. Beyond computers, GUIs are used in many handheld mobile devices such as MP3 players, portable media players, gaming devices, smartphones and smaller household, office and industrial controls. The term GUI tends not to be applied to other lower-display resolution types of interfaces, such as video games (where head-up displays (HUDs) are preferred), or not including flat screens like volumetric displays because the term is restricted to the scope of 2D display screens able to describe generic information, in the tradition of the computer science research at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.
KDE in the context of Apple WebKit
WebKit is a browser engine primarily used in Apple's Safari web browser, as well as all web browsers on iOS and iPadOS. WebKit is also used by the PlayStation consoles starting with the PS3, the Tizen mobile operating systems, the Amazon Kindle e-book reader, Nintendo consoles starting with the 3DS Internet Browser, GNOME Web, and the discontinued BlackBerry Browser.
WebKit started as a fork of the KHTML and KJS libraries from KDE, and has since been further developed by KDE contributors, Apple, Google, Nokia, Bitstream, BlackBerry, Sony, Igalia, and others. WebKit supports macOS, Windows, Linux, and various other Unix-like operating systems. On April 3, 2013, Google announced that it had forked WebCore, a component of WebKit, to be used in future versions of Google Chrome under the name Blink. Since version 15 in May 2013, Opera web browser has dropped its own Presto layout engine in favor of WebKit as implemented by Google in the Chromium project.
KDE in the context of KHTML
KHTML is a discontinued browser engine that was developed by the KDE project. It originated as the engine of the Konqueror browser in the late 1990s, but active development ceased in 2016. It was officially discontinued in 2023.
Built on the KParts framework and written in C++, KHTML had relatively good support for Web standards during its prime. Engines forked from KHTML are used by most of the browsers that are widely used today, including WebKit (Safari) and Blink (Google Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, Opera GX, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, Yandex Browser, Orion, Arc (On iOS), Epiphany, Midori, Konqueror, Otter Browser, Dooble, Epic Privacy Browser, Slimjet, Comodo Dragon, SRWare Iron, Cốc Cốc, Torch Browser, Orbitum, UC Browser, Kiwi Browser, Samsung Internet, Bromite, Blisk, Colibri Browser, Min Browser, Ungoogled Chromium, Iridium Browser, Avast Secure Browser, AVG Secure Browser and Brave).