It’s always been just KDE to me. In the past year or so, I’ve noticed people calling Plasma KDE or even just Plasma. What happened? Why do people insist on making the name longer? Why the word Plasma? What is Plasma referring to? And, are they trying to move away from the KDE name to just Plasma?
Answer: Plasma is the desktop environment. KDE is the community that makes Plasma and many other related software.
Well KDE used to stand for K Desktop Environment as a rif off of CDE Common Desktop Environment. They named kde 4 plasma when kde was overhauled during that release. Since kde does much more than just the DE they moved to just be KDE stands for KDE like how KFC no longer stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The “K” stood for “Kool”
Yeah I think that was dropped to just K before the release of 1.0.
Was it 4? I thought it came around for the 5 release. I think I switched DEs for almost the entire 4 debacle then switched back at 5 when it stopped sucking.
Edit: NM, I see I just missed it by skipping 4: https://dot.kde.org/2009/11/24/repositioning-kde-brand/
Ah KDE netbook when the world thought that was going to be an ongoing thing. It’s a shame MS killed the concept. Linux powered Netbooks like the OLPC and the Eeepc were great for on the go when you just need more than your phone. I’m still glad OLPC is still around.
Ha, yes, I remember pretty much the entire Linux community dropped KDE 4. What a time for a rebranding.