KDE Goes Nagware (And Income Skyrocketed)

The K Desktop Environment, one of the most popular desktops for Linux, now has a popup which asks users for donations. Resulting in an income spike that is allowing KDE to (possibly) balance their budget. Should other open source projects and foundations consider a similar approach?

More from The Lunduke Journal:

[bigfatpandalaktana]

I'm glad they did it in such a respectful way too. Always support free software - just because it's free to acquire, doesn't mean it's free to produce.

[dtaggartofRTD]

That's the most respectable nagware implementation I've ever seen. I like it.

[foggygray]

Wikipedia could learn a lot about how to make an unobtrusive donation request.

[asbjo]

Wait? KDE has run on roundabout €100k a year? That is absolutely nothing for the product quality. And damn good progress in the last couple of years! I'll def. Donate if they keep it once a year. Just for the respect they show with it.

[MarkulonMarkerson-szxs]

Came in with my pitchfork ready, but that is actually reasonable. Nice clickbait Lunduke 7/10

[novaflareq]

Bro literally just asked politely for money and received it because they know we know they know we know they deserve it

[ytuser]

Oh yeah, I just donated them, as I use KDE Plasma with much pleasure for years now on Arch. I always loved KDE and I'm happy I can help. I much rather donate FLOSS project than buy commercial software TBH.

[TheUnkow]

As long as it's non invasive, stuff like buy me a coffee or a clean donate with tiers or any amount are great.

People know it takes time and effort to develop the software. Specially if the developers often pour and maintain great features.

BUT if I donate, I would like to know the money go to actually buy those people coffee or ease their work NOT be invested in some political idea that never got mentioned on the donation page.

[lukewood]

Honestly, I'd donate if I had the means. Stuff like this should be rewarded and encouraged.

[Jaxon-ck]

I'm definitely going to donate. I love KDE and want to help sustain it.

[reactionaryprinciplegaming]

I should go back to donating. I used to donate yearly to some open-source projects, but I cut then off when they started going all in on the cod of conduct and hating straight White men. I'll need to figure out projects who don't do that.

[ktjlsfwjcb]

If you do evil, you will become multi-billion dollar company.
If you do good, your ceiling is a few million dollars a year.
That's how our world works.

[DarksoldierX]

I've been using KDE over a few different operating systems for years. This video surprised me because I thought they would be raking in the cash because they've always had badass looking desktops. I don't mind the popup and wish them the very best.

[Mooooov]

KDE is far from perfect, but it is overall a very good desktop environment and I enjoyed using it for the past two years. I like Plasma, Dolphin and Okular quite a lot, so donating to them, even if its just a bit, seems like a no brainer. I think their claim that most people don't follow their social media channels very closely and never heard about their fundraisers is absolutely true. Considering this and the need for funding beyond large corporate one-time donations, I really like the way they went and I am glad it seems to be working out for now. I hope that money is well spent continuing to improve the KDE desktop experience

[johnh]

If any of the developers are reading these comments, as a recently returning KDE user (been awhile since I used it much and it is feeling 100x more polished!) I agree with everything he said! I saw the pop-up the other day and absolutely would not mind seeing it once a month! Those who want to donate and have the means can, and those who don't want to donate or don't have the means won't.

Aannnd we can turn it off any time we want? There's nothing at all to complain about here!

[icebalm]

I've been running KDE for years now. This was so unobtrusive that I didn't even notice it until I saw this video, then I went into my notifications and... there it was. I had to be told to go look for the notification to even see it.

[Thenameishopper]

I’m glad to hear it’s working well for them as kde of the last few years have really kicked in to gear and hopefully more major distros use kde as the default desktop

[jmooroof]

KDE is one of the best things ever so i guess it is fair

[gutter_onion]

My best friend took the dive from windows to Linux a few months ago. I set him up with KDE for familiarity. He got the nag the other day, said it didn’t bother him. That’s the biggest outcome of this. People aren’t being harassed.

[soulextracter]

"That's not to say they are pointless, but they don't actually serve a purpose"
x'D