Nobody in their right mind would choose Windows over GNU/Linux based on the desktop experience alone, says Matthias Ettrich.

Berlin 28. April 2010. Georg Greve, founding president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, has received the Cross of Merit on ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande). Georg received this high award from the German President for his work on Free Software and Open Standards.

But all that’s history. Now I love my KDE. As part of the birthday “bash,” Claudia Rauch sat down with Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Matthias Ettrich, two of the founding members of KDE e.V, for an interview.

KDE 4 creator Matthias Ettrich, envisaged a Unix desktop with a common look and feel. KDE 4 has been released for over a year now, has it met this goal?

On November 27, 2012 was the 15th birthday of +KDE e.V. (eingetragener Verein; registered association), the legal entity which represents +The KDE® Community in legal and financial matters. We published interviews with two of the founding members (Matthias Ettrich and Kalle Dalheimer) on the why, what and when of KDE e.V. in the beginning.

After a short break, we return to the next interview in the People Behind KDE series, travelling back to Germany to talk to a developer who wants to make things as simple as possible - for both users and developers. The recent winner of an aKademy Award for Best Non-Application for his work on Phonon - tonight's star of People Behind KDE is Matthias Kretz.

1&1, GMX and WEB.DE receive the German Document Freedom Award for the use of Open Standards. The prize is awarded by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure e.V. (FFII). 1&1 is awarded for automatically adding XMPP for all customers of their mail services.

Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) on Saturday received the Theodor Heuss Medal in recognition of its work for freedom in the information society. The medal is awarded once a year in Stuttgart by a non-partisan foundation named for West Germany's first president.

Because of the German federal elections in 2009, FSFE called on all German Free Software supporters to ask the parties’ candidates about their positions on Free Software and Open Standards. FSFE set up a page about the German Bundestagswahl to help asking questions, and to collecting answers.