Where did the "Plasma" in KDE Plasma come from, and why do many people say that with or instead of just KDE?

[lordnikon@lemmy.world]

Yeah I think that was dropped to just K before the release of 1.0.

[feyter@programming.dev]

I thought it stood for "Kool Desktop Environment"

[lordnikon@lemmy.world]

Ah KDE netbook when the world thought that was going to be an ongoing thing. It's a shame MS killed the concept. Linux powered Netbooks like the OLPC and the Eeepc were great for on the go when you just need more than your phone. I'm still glad OLPC is still around.

[bluesquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org]

Ha, yes, I remember pretty much the entire Linux community dropped KDE 4. What a time for a rebranding.

[genderneutralbro@lemmy.sdf.org]

Kids these days and their "Plasma". BACK IN MY DAY it was just KDE!

I'm not sure why this feels new to me. Perhaps it's because I spent a lot of time on other DEs after 2009.

But also, from that link:

We will use "KDE" exclusively in two meanings:

• KDE, the community, which creates free software for end users
• As an umbrella brand for the technology created by the KDE community

So I don't feel like it's wrong to just call it KDE, just imprecise.

[zod000@lemmy.ml]

The issue is that it was the DE originally, some people (myself included) just didn't fully get the memo when it changed like 15 or so years ago. I haven't used the KDE DE since before that change, so I get how it could be missed. Rebranding is hard, even years later. I am sure many people think KFC still stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken too.

[half@lemy.lol]

I have an irrational fear of this acronym. I think I'm worried I might accidentally recurse forever, and that will become the only thing I do for the rest of my existence.

[noxphasma@lemmy.world]

Yes, that was the original name, back in the 90's.

[effortlesseffluvium@lemm.ee]

All I know is it’s not Unix.

[thorned_rose@sh.itjust.works]

Everyone here sorta answers the questions but not entirely. So KDE started back in the 1990s as K Desktop Environment as a play on the Common Desktop Environment. The K was originally suggested as standing for Kool buy I guess others in project didn't think that was very kool and it was left officially as just K.

As to why Plasma - when KDE 4 was released, "Plasma" replaced Kdesktop shell and whatnot and was named Plasma because plasma evokes dynamic fluidity like plasma or some such lol. Unfortunately I can't find anything easily on the interwebs that shows how it got it's name

References:

• https://kde.org/announcements/announcement/
• https://timeline.kde.org/