October will mark 30 years since a handful of developers first sketched out a free desktop environment for Linux. What began as a modest project has grown into one of the longest-running open source efforts in computing. The KDE community now ships sophisticated software used by millions, powers devices from desktops to handhelds, and recently launched its own operating system. Back in 1996 Matthias Ettrich posted a call for help on Usenet. He wanted a consistent, attractive graphical interface for Unix systems. The response surprised him. Contributors from around the world joined in. They chose the name KDE, short for K Desktop Environment. Work started on top of the Qt toolkit. The first public release arrived in 1998. Those early years brought rapid change. KDE 1.0 offered a complete desktop with file manager, panel and basic apps. Critics complained about Qt’s proprietary license. The team responded by creating the free Qt license that satisfied open source requirements. Tension eased. Momentum built.…