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Welcome to

is open source / open discussion software projects working on interoperability and shared technology for X Window System desktops. The most famous X desktops are GNOME and KDE, but developers working on any Linux/UNIX GUI technology are welcome to participate.

is building a base platform for desktop software on Linux and UNIX. The elements of this platform have become the backend for higher-level application-visible APIs such as Qt, GTK+, XUL, VCL, WINE, GNOME, and KDE. The base platform is both software and specifications.

Software

hosts any "on-topic" software projects. If you have a project that fits into our mission and needs hosting, please make a request using our bugzilla. Mailing lists about freedesktop software are hosted here.

Standards

is not a formal standards organization, though some see a need for one that covers some of the areas we are working on. For Linux operating system standards, look at the Linux Standard Base project. The X.Org Foundation and the IETF are other groups that do formal standards. The Free Standards Group is one group that publishes "de jure" standards for free software; is loosely affiliated with the FSG.

Unlike a standards organization, is a "collaboration zone" where ideas and code are tossed around, and de facto specifications are encouraged. The primary entry to these discussions is the xdg mailing list.

Getting Involved

You can get involved in a number of ways. See the MissionStatement for our principle activities. See GettingInvolved for concrete suggestions on how you can contribute. See AccountRequests for information on how to obtain commit access to a project. See NewProject for how to start a new project.

Contacting freedesktop

If you have any comments or questions about this site please send a message to the xdg list.

Sponsors

The servers are generously hosted by Portland State University. Intel, HP and Google have sponsored the servers themselves and Collabora are sponsoring sysadmin time.

This wiki is undergoing conversion. If you have a fd.o shell account, you can help!