Have you ever wondered exactly what the KDE Plasma desktop stands for? What it wants to achieve? The kind of user it’s trying to serve?

I can’t say I had had, but lest I do the KDE Plasma vision statement, unveiled this week, neatly lays out the project’s whats, whys and hows.

A vision statement is a ‘declaration of objectives’ (thanks Wikipedia) written with a longterm view in mind.

And that longterm view for Plasma is to be an approachable cross-device work environment that is able to ‘adapt’ to input methods, form factor, and technical constraints (where applicable). To serve as a desktop that is both accessible to newbies but not limited for power users or edge use cases.

“The end result is a stable workspace that the user can trust, that is friendly and easy to use, and that is beautiful and elegant in how it works,” says KDE Neon lead Jonathan Ridell.

The full KDE Plasma vision statement follows.

“Plasma is a cross-device work environment by the KDE Community where trust is put on the user’s capacity to best define her own workflow and preferences.

Plasma is simple by default, a clean work area for real-world usage which intends to stay out of your way.

Plasma is powerful when needed, enabling the user to create the workflow that makes her more effective to complete her tasks.

Plasma never dictates the user’s needs, it only strives to solve them. Plasma never defines what the user is allowed to do, it only ensures that she can.

Our motivation is to enable actual work to happen, across devices, across different platforms, using any application needed.

We build to be durable, we create to be usable, we design to be elegant.”

Stirring stuff, isn’t it? If the vision statement has stoked your appetite for all things Plasma you can try the latest stable release, Plasma 5.10, in KDE Neon User Edition.