OpenDesktop.org

The goal of opendesktop.org is the advancement of free software and libre computing technologies via hosting free-as-in-freedom-and-beer services for the community.

As of 2019, Opendesktop has extended its offerings of free alternatives to proprietary services, like file sharing, contact and calendar management, chat and messaging. All these services are based on libre software components, like Nextcloud, Discourse or Riot/Matrix for the chat.

A major part of opendesktop.org's services is pling.com, which allows the publishing of any kind of libre content like themes, wallpapers or software applications and add-ons, as well as general creative content like videos or comics, provided the content is released under liberal licensing terms like the GPL or Creative Commons. This content can then be downloaded or directly installed by everyone without registration or any other limitation or cost. Registered users can up- or downvote content, add comments or make a donation and also upload new content such as applications, themes, add-ons or other libre content. In that regard openDesktop.org's Pling is one of the biggest online communities for making such content available, serving as platform for the official KDE Store[1] and other sites that are part of the network, like gnome-look.org, xfce-look.org and more. It's a place where developers, artists and users come together sharing more than 100,000 user generated contents and generating over 90 million page impressions per month.

Social Desktop logo

The social community aspect of the portal has been a driving factor early on. According to the project site a dedicated community is a key factor to improve the quality of open source and to ultimately grow Linux Desktop. Today the acceptance of FLOSS projects and CC artwork is growing, as is the willingness to support quality content via monetary support of the creators of such content. One primary goal for Pling is to encourage free software users to support the various sections of the platform via donations.

Pling.com uses the Open Collaboration Services API, or short OCS API, which is a certified standard protocol of freedesktop.org.[2] KDE SC 4 was the first project to make use of the OCS API. Nowadays KDE Plasma 5 and various KDE-applications use the OCS API via the KNewStuff framework.[3]

Opencode.net is a part of the Opendesktop providing development services for the community. It is based on Gitlab, with the possibility to build binaries via CI and integrate any project with Opendesktops publishing service Pling.com.