16.2 Desktop Differences: Development

The differences between KDE and GNOME matter more to developers than to the average user. If you choose to develop software based on one of these platforms, your choice of toolkit and desktop environment will probably be based on two factors: language and license. The GNOME libraries (the main widget set is called Gtk+) are written in C, and the KDE libraries (notably Qt) in C++. For both desktops, bindings for other languages, such as Perl, Python, and Java, are available and popular, so the choice comes down to the architecture you prefer.

Licensing is slightly more complicated. Qt, the base toolkit for KDE software, is controlled by TrollTech, Inc., and is available under a dual licensing scheme: free for the development of open software, and proprietary for the development of proprietary software. Most GNOME libraries are available for open or proprietary development at no charge. Visit http://developer.gnome.org and http://developer.kde.org for more details on building software with these tools.