Playbook tablet offering to KDE Contributors

[Laszlo Papp]

Dear KDE contributors,

When the KDE Mobile project was born a few years ago, the original goal was
bringing the KDE ecosystem to various mobile devices. This goal has evolved
since then. There has been a lot of effort put into porting KDE
applications to mobile platforms such as: Fremantle, Harmattan, Android,
and so forth. In parallel, there is an ongoing effort aiming to put the KDE
workspace on tablet devices, where the Plasma Active project is a defacto
technology leader.

This has been the past and present efforts, but let us now have a look at
an additional platform what the Qt ecosystem might hold for us in the
future. For that, we first need to understand what has happened recently in
and around the Qt Project, which is the base motor for the whole KDE
project. Despite of the recent facts about Nokia, there is a company which
selected Qt as the base technology for their UI. This company is RIM.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/7/2781826/blackberry-playbook-now-supports-qt-in-bid-to-lure-disgruntled-nokia

http://press.rim.com/newsroom/press/2012/rim-updates-blackberry-10-developer-toolkits-.html

It has been possible to get the Blackberry devices (Playbook and alpha
phones) at the Blackberry Jams. Unfortunately, many people were unable to
attend those events.

This is where the KDE Blackberry Contributor Device Program comes in. The
Playbook developed by RIM, looks very promising, making it into a potential
tablet for the KDE community to continue the KDE Mobile efforts. The
technical details can be found here:

http://us.blackberry.com/playbook-tablet.html

We are now offering Playbook devices to KDE contributors, who wish to work
on the KDE Project for a new, Blackberry platform. Thanks to RIM who
provided this excellent opportunity for us. This will hopefully be a
win-win collaboration for both parties.

Please let us know why you think you should be getting a Playbook. Add an
entry to the following wiki page including: your name, email address,
project name, project url, brief project description, and describe your
plans for the device.

http://community.kde.org/KDE_Mobile/Blackberry/Contributor_Device_Program

Unfortunately, there are not many units available. If there are more people
interested in taking part in this program than available devices, we may
need to get selective in the end. Please do not let this hold you back from
applying! We will do our best to provide as many Playbooks as possible to
the contributors.

While working at home and collaborating over the internet are great
opportunities for us, there may be a sprint early next year to gather
contributors face to face. There are a couple of potential places under
consideration where such a sprint could be hosted. Stay tuned; more to come
about that later on.

In summary:

* One submission per developer

* May not be able to ship to each country, but will definitely try

* Delivery is for free (except unexpected taxes that may occur, if any)

* Only Playbook devices available. No other devices offered, not even
developer alpha phones

* Application and library developers, new and old projects, artists and
usability people, and new contributors - all are welcome

* Everybody will be notified after the application deadline

* The devices are gift, not for loan.


Application deadline: 1st of October, 2012.

Please do not reply to this message. Join the kde-mobile at kde.org mailing
list [1] or the KDE forum [2] for further inqueries about the program, if
any. I wish you all a nice day, and thank you in advance.

Laszlo

[1] https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-mobile
[2] http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=107549
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