KDE's Krita Loses Its Main Backer

Since 2007 there has been KO GmbH as a support and software service company built around KOffice/Calligra in their belief that the software was "getting ready for the big time", but seven years later the situation is not so good and KO GmbH is no longer handling Krita.

KO GmbH was doing well originally with contracts from Nokia and other organizations around developing and porting Calligra, but for various reasons they ended up losing most of their customers. KO ended up failing at generating sales and now things are comping apart.

KO co-founder Boudewijn Rempt wrote about the rise and fall of KO GmbH today in a blog post. The post was written today to announce that as of January he's no longer with the company he co-founded. Additionally, the Krita Foundation has taken over Krita on Steam and support for Krita Studio customers. Krita 2.9 will at least be released though before this change-up happens and the co-founder goes to becoming self-employed or working for another organization. Boudewijn has been -- and remains -- the key maintainer of Krita.

There's also a posting at Krita.org about KO GmbH no longer being involved with Krita. I'm told by another former KO employee that KO is still going to be around but with a reduced portfolio that focuses on WebODF.