What is &tde;? &tde; is the Trinity Desktop Environment. The project was initiated by Matthias Ettrich in 1996 and originally called the K Desktop Environment. The aim of the &tde; project is to connect the power of the &UNIX; operating systems with the comfort of a modern user interface. If you want further information about &tde;, look at About Trinity On which platforms can I expect &tde; to work? &tde; is a Desktop Environment for all flavors of &UNIX; systems. While most &tde; developers use &Linux;, &tde; should run on a wide range of systems. You might need to tweak the source code a bit to get &tde; to compile on different variant of &UNIX; systems, or when not using the &GNU; development tools, in particular the &gcc; compiler. Why should I use TDE? TDE provides a traditional computer desktop that is snappy and responsive. A project goal is to provide a highly customizable desktop without forcing any particular feature or effect on users. TDE comes with many software tools to provide a productive and enjoyable computer desktop system. Is &tde; a window manager? No, &tde; is not a window manager. While &tde; includes a sophisticated window manager (&twin;), &tde; is much more, providing a full integrated desktop environment. &tde; includes a web browser, a file manager, a window manager, a help system, a configuration system, many tools and utilities, and many applications, including but not limited to mail and news clients, drawing programs, a PDF and a &DVI; viewer and so forth. Is &tde; a CDE, &Windows; or &Mac; OS clone? No, &tde; is not a clone. Specifically &tde; is not a CDE or &Windows; clone. While the &tde; developers have and will continue to glean the best features from all existing desktop environments, &tde; is a unique environment that has and will continue to go its own way. On what platform is TDE based? TDE uses C++ and the &Qt; C++ crossplatform toolkit. The TDE development team now maintains the Qt3 toolkit, renamed TQt3. Is &tde; free software? Yes, &tde; is free software according to the &GNU; General Public License. All &tde; libraries are available under the LGPL making commercial software development for the &tde; desktop possible, but all &tde; applications are licensed under the GPL. &tde; uses the &Qt; C++ crossplatform toolkit, which is also released (since version 2.2) under the GPL. Both &tde; and &Qt; can be made available on &CD-ROM; free of charge. No runtime fees of any kind are incurred. Why the rebranding and renaming efforts? Why can't you continue to call the software KDE? The "KDE" name, various logos, and related efforts are trademarked by the KDE Foundation. Since the Trinity project is not affiliated with the KDE Foundation, we can't legally use their trademarks. How is Trinity different from KDE4? Both desktop environments share common roots to KDE 3.5.10, the last official release of KDE in the 3.x series. Many KDE developers wanted to break from that code chain and tool sets to start afresh. Thus was born KDE4. In addition to moving to the Qt4 tool set, the KDE developers revamped the underlying KDE code set. KDE4 and Trinity have different philosophies about work flow preferences. KDE4 developers want to support emerging work flow concepts and techniques. Trinity developers want to maintain a "traditional" desktop environment. For example, KDE4 offers the following tools: Semantic desktop through Nepomuk PIM (Personal Information Management) data caching through Akonadi Desktop file searching through Strigi Activities, a computer desktop metaphor for managing tasks and activities Whereas TDE offers the following: Desktop search through the locate:/ kio-slave and Beagle Integrated PIM suite with plugins Related task management using multiple desktops The KDE developers support alternate desktop interfaces, such as those used with netbooks, tablets, and smart phones. TDE provides a single interface that is optimized for the mouse/keyboard HCI (Human-computer interaction) model. Both desktop environments provide an excellent choice for different work flows but differ in approach. Trinity leans toward user expectations of how desktop environments have functioned traditionally. There is a sense of familiarity with that environment many people like. Similarly other users prefer the work flow features offered by KDE4 because those features match their expectations of how they want their computer to behave. The difference between the two environments does not mean one is smaller, buggier, or slower -- only that they are different and appeal to different types of people. Although sharing a common heritage, both desktops appeal to different groups of people. As always with free/libre software, there is a choice.