GNU Terry Pratchett - Tiffany Aching fan-art

#krita #speedpainting #discworld

"This Week in Plasma" brings the news that...

You can use long-presses on your regular keyboard to access alternative glyphs—just like on your phone, e.g. press and hold down [$] and a popup appears that let's you choose between €, £, ¥, ¢, ₹. Also new is that you can download and install alternative sound themes and that we reduced CPU and GPU load for full-screen windows on screens using more fractional scale factors, and much more!

https://blogs.kde.org/2026/03/14/this-week-in-plasma-press-and-hold-for-alternative-characters/

#desktop #FreeSoftware #openSource

KDE supports the "Keep Android Open" campaign

#Google will cut off independent developers to #Android if they do not register with Google first. This will kill independent platforms like @fdroidorg and severely impede FLOSS devs from creating apps for Android.

https://keepandroidopen.org/

Many KDE apps are deployed for Android: KDE Connect, Itinerary, Tokodon, and there's even a test version of Krita for Android.

KDE calls on Google to reverse course and @keepandroidopen.

https://keepandroidopen.org/open-letter/

KDE has been selected to participate in Google Summer of Code 2026.

https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/programs/2026/organizations

Through GSoC, KDE seeks to encourage new contributors to join Free Software projects long term and ensure the continuity of FLOSS.

This year's proposed ideas cover improving Okular, Kdenlive, digiKam, and our localization infrastructures, among others.

https://community.kde.org/GSoC/2026/Ideas

The list is still open. If you would like to participate in GSoC 2026 with your own idea, check out

https://community.kde.org/GSoC#Instructions_for_potential_contributors

RE: https://gruene.social/@Gerbsen/116052492129846084

Money transfer from the German Federal Administration to Microsoft:

2023: 274.091.361,75 Euro
2024: 347.665.579,71 Euro
2025: 481.369.660,77 Euro

(Source: German Parliament 21/4006 page 96 https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/21/040/2104006.pdf )

Daniel asks what #FreeSoftware #OpenSource could have been procured and developed with such sums and how you feel about when you see those numbers. He also fears this trend will continue.

Plasma 6.6 is now live!

In Plasma 6.6, Spectacle can read texts from screenshots; we trial-run our very own on-screen keyboard for touchscreens; and we have a new first-time wizard that let's users configure their passwords, timezones, keyboard and networks, on preinstalled systems; among many, many more marvelous things.

https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.6.0/

#desktop #Plasma6 #FreeSoftware #OpenSource

This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:

https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/recognition-of-work-on-open-source-as-volunteering-in-germany#petition-main

This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.

If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!

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Photo credit: FSFE.