Up to Novell's takeover of the Suse Linux AG, KDE was without doubt the preferred default for the German distribution. Now openSUSE users are increasingly demanding the return of KDE as default desktop.

The Debian project is planning a whole series of enhancements for Debian 5.0 "Squeeze." A few results of the currently running Google Summer of Code are beginning to creep into it.

The Clutter project has made available version 1.0.0 of its user interface library. Clutter is not only the basis for the Moblin GUI, but the foundation for the upcoming GNOME 3.0 interface.

KDE and GNOME developers drafted a secret storage API designed to be a common interface for desktop applications that need to store passwords and other confidential data.

Open source project Amarok, in an open letter to Palm, has invited the company to work with them. The reason: the Apple iTunes 8.2.1 update guarantees that the Linux-based Palm Pre smartphone can no longer use the iTunes music management software.

The Sidux Linux distro now appears in version 2009-02 as based on Debian and with Kernel 2.6.30, KDE 4.2.4 and free sofware as usual.

The purpose of the Desktop summit on Gran Canaria is not only to improve cooperation and collaboration between the Gnome and KDE developers. As every year, a select few KDE developers will receive the project specific Akademy Award. We will introduce the winners.

GNOME developer Thomas Thurman describes the future of the Metacity 2 window manager in a project blog. Apparently a new GNOME component named Mutter will be taking over its functions.