"A primary example is the KDE development platform. It consists
of KDE's libraries built on top of Qt, Akonadi, Nepomuk/Strigi and
others and represents one of the most important products we create.
This platform started back in the 90s as a means to an end: getting
the KDE desktop workspace functioning and sharing code and
functionality efficiently between KDE apps in a way that guaranteed
some consistency. These days, while it has kept this same set of
purposes as an important part of its mission, the KDE development
platform has taken on a much bigger role and a life of its own.
"I'd love to see some thoughts that extend beyond Plasma/KWin
out there and look at things such as the maturity of KDE's
development platform compared to what others are offering right now
or, as in the case of GNOME 3, in the near future. I'm really
excited how we have Nepomuk shaping up, for instance, or how in the
last few releases we have seen integration of KAuthorization which
gives us access to PolicyKit (including the upcoming polkit-1
release) on Linux using the same "hide the system level API
details" strategy as Phonon, Solid and others which in turn has
made the polkit-0.9 to polkit-1 transition painless for KDE
applications. We have good, stable libraries built on really
exciting technologies. (Just look at what's going on in Qt these
days, or Akonadi!)"
