The KDE community maintains multiple free-software projects. The project formerly referred to as KDE (or KDE SC (Software Compilation)) nowadays consists of three parts
- KDE Plasma, a graphical desktop environment with customizable layouts and panels, supporting virtual desktops and widgets. Written with Qt and KDE Frameworks
- KDE Frameworks, a collection of libraries and software frameworks built on top of Qt (formerly known as ‘kdelibs’ or ‘KDE Platform’)
- KDE Gear, utility applications (like Kdenlive or Krita) mostly built on KDE Frameworks and which are often part of the official KDE Applications release