KDE becomes Cross-platform!

KDE one of the most used open-source desktop environment is going cross-platform. Phonon, which was developed by KDE community as a part of KDE 4.0 release. Now KDE community, with the help of Trolltech will be extending Phonon to all major desktop including Windows® and Mac® OS X.

The core KDE library, and some applications like KDEOffice,Amarok audio player are being ported. Windows KDE (still in starting stages) is available for download at KDE mirrors.

Trolltech's Qt® has been a high-performance, cross-platform software library available for both open-source and commercial developers. It is also the base library used by KDE. Initially only linux verion of Qt was available in GPL, but Trolltech has decided to make Windows version available under the GPL too with the introduction of Qt 4. With these changes, you will see KDEOffice and KDE PIM softwares on windows environment.

This appraoch of bringing KDE as a cross-platform is welcomed. But I am still doubt how effective this is going to be. Mac has one of the test UI and is much user friendly than any other environment will user accept a change from the default Mac OS UI to KDE? Another concern is will the linux adoption reduce if this "KDE adoption" become popular?