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In it for the money - the what, how and why of commercial KDE development

Submitted by admin on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 16:37
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Author(s): 
Till Adam

Companies like KDAB and Intevation (Kolab Konsortium) and their partners have been working commercially on and around KDE for a number of years now. What started out small has grown into a series of much larger projects and led to ongoing, long term involvement of the companies providing these services (and their customers) with the KDE project. This presentation will explain some of the background of why folks like paying for Free Software work, how one goes about selling it, and buying it, particularly in large organizations and the public sector, the kind of work we are asked to do and how it all works in practise. It will also explore the multiple benefits of working closely with and within KDE, for us and our customers, but also point out some points of friction between those working on KDE as their job, with deadlines, customer priorities and limited budgets, and those who, very rightfully, could not care less about any of those things.

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Author bio: 
Till Adam has been hacking on KDE, particularly Kontact, for a number of years. He is talking more and coding less, these days, with the talking largely focused on Akonadi. Till's job at KDAB includes the coordination of the company's work around KDE and the Kolab groupware project. He lives with his wife and daughter in Berlin, Germany.