KDE e.V. and GNOME Foundation to Co-Host 2011 Desktop Summit in Berlin

GNOME and KDE are teaming up again to host the 2011 Desktop Summit in Berlin, Germany. Due to the success of the 2009 Desktop Summit the projects will co-locate GUADEC and Akademy once again in August, 2011 for the largest free software desktop event ever.

The 2009 Desktop Summit was a fantastic opportunity for the leaders of the free software desktop community to share talks, address common issues, and build relationships between the communities with combined social events.

The 2011 Desktop Summit will build on the first Summit's success. More than 1,000 contributors from more than 50 countries are expected to attend the 2011 event in Berlin. In addition to members of the GNOME and KDE development community, the conference will also attract many participants in the overall FLOSS community from local projects, organizations, and companies.

"We are looking forward to the Desktop Summit. GUADEC is our community's opportunity to meet in person and we are glad to be able to have our KDE colleagues as part of our conversations and our celebrations." says Stormy Peters, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation. "Berlin is a great city with a very strong free software community. C-base, KDE and GNOME will make a great team!"

Berlin was one of several locations proposed for the Desktop Summit in 2011. It was chosen due to the excellent facilities at the conference site, the strong presence of KDE and GNOME communities in the area, the strength of the organizing team, and an easily accessible site for those travelling to the Desktop Summit. Both communities are very excited about holding the Desktop Summit 2011 in Berlin!

"Berlin is a fantastic city with strong ties to both the KDE and GNOME communities as well as free software in general," says Cornelius Schumacher, President of KDE e.V. "The KDE community is excited to meet again with the GNOME community to hold the second Desktop Summit there. This is going to be one of the main free software events of the year 2011."

The Berlin team consists of Claudia Rauch of KDE e.V., Caspar Clemens Mierau of Ubuntu and c-base, and Mirko Boehm of KDE, and is strongly supported by the city of Berlin. With their ties into both the Gnome and KDE communities, the team well represents the idea of a joint Desktop Summit.

"We are honored and proud that our proposal was selected. What we look forward to the most is the inspiration our communities will draw from having the Desktop Summit together again, but also from visiting our bustling, welcoming city. We would like to thank all the supporters of the proposal, and will work hard to make the conference a big success." says Mirko Boehm.

About KDE and KDE e.V.

KDE is an international community that creates Free Software for desktop and portable computing. Among KDE's products are a modern desktop system for Linux and UNIX platforms, comprehensive office productivity and groupware suites and hundreds of software titles in many categories including Internet and web applications, multimedia, entertainment, educational, graphics and software development. KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind. KDE4's full-featured applications run natively on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X.

KDE e.V. is the organization that supports the growth of the KDE community. Its mission statement -- to promote and distribute Free Desktop software -- is provided through legal, financial and organizational support for the KDE community. KDE e.V. organizes the yearly KDE World Summit "Akademy," along with numerous smaller-scale development meetings.

More information about KDE and the KDE e.V. can be found at www.kde.org and ev.kde.org.

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

GNOME is a free-software project whose goal is to develop a complete, accessible and easy to use desktop for Linux and Unix-based operating systems. GNOME also includes a complete development environment to create new applications. It is released twice a year on a regular schedule.

The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. GNOME is a standard part of all leading GNU/Linux and Unix distributions, and is popular with both large existing corporate deployments and millions of small business and home users worldwide.

Composed of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation is a member directed, non-profit organization that provides financial, organizational and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap.

More information about GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at www.gnome.org and foundation.gnome.org.