The KDE Desktop project has announced that it has joined hands with Spanish retailer Slimbook to offer a laptop that will come installed with the KDE software.
KDE is one of the two main desktop environments used by GNU/Linux users, the other being GNOME. It has numerous applications for common tasks that desktop users undertake.
Last year, the KDE Desktop was packaged with Linux and issued as KDE neon. The Slimbook will come with this operating system installed.
The project's Thomas Pfeiffer said in a blog post that the KDE Slimbook allowed the project to offer users a laptop tested directly by developers, "on the exact same hardware and software configuration that the users get, and where any potential hardware-related issues have already been ironed out before a new version of our software is shipped to them".
{loadposition sam08}He said having exclusive hardware would give developers the opportunity to isolate and fix issues that users have with the software.
"When something in Plasma, a KDE Application or some software using a KDE Framework does not work as intended for a user, there are at least three layers that can cause the problem: the KDE software itself, the operating system or he hardware or its drivers.
"Last year, KDE neon joined the KDE community with the promise to give us control over the operating system layer. This does not mean we won't make our software available on other distributions or operating systems, of course, but it allows us to eliminate that layer as a possible source of a problem."
The laptop comes either with an Intel i5 or an i7 processor, Intel Graphics HD 520 and up to 16GB of memory. Detailed specs are here.
The KDE Slimbook can be ordered now for delivery after mid-March. It offers Spanish or English keyboards.