Challenging Code: A Sociological Reading of the KDE Free Software Project
Abstract
Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) challenges the norms and relations of the capitalist software industry that is at the core of network society. Many people involved in FLOSS see themselves as activists in a new social movement. The article discusses the KDE (Kool Desktop Environment) project as a FLOSS case study. KDE is one of several projects intended to bring ease of use of a graphical user interface (GUI) to various free operating systems. (The operating system is the underlying software on top of which sit applications we use directly such as web browsers or word processors.) The article considers the KDE project from three broad perspectives — ‘cosmological’, technical, and organizational — in order to examine the expressed world-view and technical organization of the project through an established sociological approach to activism and social movements.
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The rivalry between GNOME and KDE does not prevent joint events like the Free Desktop Summit.
“La rivalidad entre GNOME y KDE no impide que realicen eventos conjuntos como la Free Desktop Summit (Alleyne, 2011).”
From Desarrollo Floss y gobernanza de pares: el caso del entorno de escritorio Gnome (2020) · cites this paper as Alleyne, 2011
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References 78 · Cited by 26
- Authors
- Alleyne, B.
- Affiliations
- Goldsmiths University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Alleyne, Brian
- ORCID
- Alleyne, Brian
- Venue
- Sociology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-06
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 496-511
- ISSN
- 0038-0385 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8684
- OpenAlex
- W2083379695
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2022: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sociology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Source Software Innovations
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Anarchism and Radical Politics
- Keywords
- KDE, free software, open source software, free and open source software, social movements, network society, graphical user interface, worldview
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