Dear KDE contributors,

When the KDE Mobile project was born a few years ago, the original goal was bringing the KDE ecosystem to various mobile devices. This goal has evolved since then. There has been a lot of effort put into porting KDE applications to mobile platforms such as: Fremantle, Harmattan, Android, and so forth. In parallel, there is an ongoing effort aiming to put the KDE workspace on tablet devices, where the Plasma Active project is a defacto technology leader.

This has been the past and present efforts, but let us now have a look at an additional platform what the Qt ecosystem might hold for us in the future. For that, we first need to understand what has happened recently in and around the Qt Project, which is the base motor for the whole KDE project. Despite of the recent facts about Nokia, there is a company which selected Qt as the base technology for their UI. This company is RIM.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/278182 ... tled-nokia

http://press.rim.com/newsroom/press/201 ... kits-.html

It has been possible to get the Blackberry devices (Playbook and alpha phones) at the Blackberry Jams. Unfortunately, many people were unable to attend those events.

This is where the KDE Blackberry Contributor Device Program comes in. The Playbook developed by RIM, looks very promising, making it into a potential tablet for the KDE community to continue the KDE Mobile efforts. The technical details can be found here:

http://us.blackberry.com/playbook-tablet.html

We are now offering Playbook devices to KDE contributors, who wish to work on the KDE Project for a new, Blackberry platform. Thanks to RIM who provided this excellent opportunity for us. This will hopefully be a win-win collaboration for both parties.

Please let us know why you think you should be getting a Playbook. Add an entry to the following wiki page including: your name, email address, project name, project url, brief project description, and describe your plans for the device.

http://community.kde.org/KDE_Mobile/Bla ... ce_Program

Unfortunately, there are not many units available. If there are more people interested in taking part in this program than available devices, we may need to get selective in the end. Please do not let this hold you back from applying! We will do our best to provide as many Playbooks as possible to the contributors.

While working at home and collaborating over the internet are great opportunities for us, there may be a sprint early next year to gather contributors face to face. There are a couple of potential places under consideration where such a sprint could be hosted. Stay tuned; more to come about that later on.

In summary:

* One submission per developer

* May not be able to ship to each country, but will definitely try

* Delivery is for free (except unexpected taxes that may occur, if any)

* Only Playbook devices available. No other devices offered, not even developer alpha phones

* Application and library developers, new and old projects, artists and usability people, and new contributors - all are welcome

* Everybody will be notified after the application deadline

* The devices are gift, not for loan.


Application deadline: 1st of October, 2012.

I wish you all a nice day, and thank you in advance.

Laszlo

How hackable is the core system?
Does it have D-Bus?
Does it have FUSE?