How KDE VDG Is Trying To Make Open-Source Software Beautiful

Calamares is not the only project under the VDG's wing however. The Breeze Icon Set for LibreOffice, called LO Breeze, which is soon to be shipping in LibreOffice 5.0, aims for increased integration within the KDE desktop. At time of this writing the LO Breeze icon set is at over 2,500 icons which makes it more complete than than Sifr, the monochrome.

It is not just icon sets and installers that the Design Group is working on. Most KDE-spins of distributions have traditionally used Apper as their preferred PackageKit graphical frontend.

That has begun to change in the last year as Kubuntu transitioned to a VDG-inspired application: Muon. Muon is a new take on the "Software Center" application genre that Ubuntu began so many years ago.

While Muon is still under development, and therefore subject to change, the over all nature of the application are settled. While Apper has compile-time support for the AppData specification, it was not designed around support for screenshots, reviews, or the related 'addon' model for packages.

Muon, like Gnome Software, is targeted at the installation of applications-- entire programs with usage cases-- which might be a culmination of several distribution packages, rather than the 'package-centric' format of traditional graphical package managers. Muon brings the interactive, review-centered "AppStore" model to the Linux desktop.