I have been a KDE users for as long as I have been a Linux user and have seen KDE grow up in to the incredible desktop it is.

I have tried Gnome but never lasted for more then a few minutes before going back to KDE.

I have seen KDE fast, slow, solid, buggy, and everything in between. It hasn't always been perfect and I like to b*tch about little stupid things I don't like. However, its always been pleasurable to use. It captures Linux for what it is I believe. Not only spectacular to use and look at but also powerful in a way that most people can't understand. Its really came a long way in a relatively short amount of time. With KDE 4.8.3 loaded on all my systems I can honestly say that this is the best KDE desktop to date. I have actually converted a few lifelong Gnome users to KDE because of how great its become. It runs like silk on my Quad core as well as my Atom Netbook, which is a lot to be said for the poor Atom ""that could"".

All this from a community of developers that don't work at a giant corporation making a huge amount of money but rather a group of volunteers that give there time and talent to create something amazing simply for the love of it.

To this I have to give Mad Props.

Thank you

I want to echo this sentiment. I began with KDE in 4.1, so I never experienced the 3.x era, but I have watched KDE mature in ways and at a rate that has genuinely impressed me. I remember using KDE 4.3 thinking about how far KDE had come since I first used it, and now 4.3 seems like an unpolished distant memory. 4.8 is an amazing piece of tech, and I am confident that by the time 5.1 comes around it will have evolved just as much. I can only imagine what direction future iterations will go, and I look forward to finding out.