Trinity Desktop Environment

Desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems

Trinity Desktop Environment

Developer(s)| TDE development team
Stable release|

R14.1.4 / April 27, 2025

Repository|

* git.trinitydesktop.org/cgit/

Written in| C++ (TQt)
Operating system| Unix-like with X11
Platform| FreeBSD and Linux
Predecessor| K Desktop Environment 3
Available in| Multilingual
Type| Desktop environment
License| GPL and other licenses
Website| www.trinitydesktop.org
Trinity 3.5.12 for Kubuntu Trinity 3.5.13.2 (Traditional Chinese localisation) Trinity R14.0.4, Kubuntu version

The Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) is a complete software desktop environment[1][2] designed for Linux and Unix-like operating systems, intended for computer users preferring a traditional desktop model, and is free/libre software. Born as a fork of KDE 3.5 in 2010, it was originally created by Timothy Pearson, who had coordinated Kubuntu remixes featuring KDE 3.5 after Kubuntu switched to KDE Plasma 4.[3]

TDE is now a fully independent project with its own development team, available for various Linux distros, BSD and DilOS. It is currently led by Slávek Banko.

TDE releases aims to provide a stable and highly customizable desktop, continuing bug fixes, additional features, and compatibility with recent hardware. Trinity is packaged for Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Mageia, OpenSUSE, Raspberry Pi OS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Slackware, Ubuntu and various other distributions and architectures.[4] It is also used as the default desktop environment of at least two Linux distributions, Q4OS and Exe GNU/Linux.[5][6] Since version 3.5.12 (its second official release), it uses its own fork of Qt3, known as TQt, so as to make it easier to eventually make TQt installable alongside later Qt releases.[7] Trinity also maintains its own versions of several KDE software applications using TQt,[8] while still providing feature updates and ensuring compatibility with recent distributions and hardware.[9][10]

## Releases

[edit]

Early releases of Trinity used a versioning scheme based on that of K Desktop Environment 3.5, from which it was forked. The R14.0 release adopted a new versioning scheme, to prevent comparisons with KDE based on version number alone and a new visual theme.[11] This new visual theme was based on the "KDE Lineart" background included in the wallpapers package for KDE 3.4 and covered the desktop background and was named "Trinity Lineart" along with the splash screen, "application info screens" (for some apps like Konqueror and Trinity Control Center), and banners (for some other apps like KPersonalizer and Kate).[12] The window, widget, and icon themes were left intact, aside from replacing all KDE logos with Trinity logos.

Prior to this, Trinity kept the KDE 3.5 visual theme, but replaced the "KDE 3.5" branding with "TDE" branding, in a font that is not the "Kabel Book"[12] font KDE used, although the K-Menu had its side image branded as just "Trinity" instead of "TDE". Kubuntu versions, on the other hand, used the included "Crystal Fire" background as the default desktop background, along with the K-Menu "side image", larger menu items, and menu layout from Kubuntu 8.04.

### History

[edit]

Date[13] | Event

|

3.5.x
29 April 2010  | 3.5.11 Maintenance release.
3 October 2010  | 3.5.12 Maintenance release.
1 November 2011  | 3.5.13 Maintenance release.
12 October 2012  | 3.5.13.1 Maintenance release.
21 July 2013[14] | 3.5.13.2 SRU release
14.0.x
16 December 2014[15] | 14.0.0 release
30 August 2015[16] | 14.0.1 release
28 November 2015[17] | 14.0.2 release
28 February 2016[18] | 14.0.3 release
7 November 2016[19] | 14.0.4 release
18 August 2018[20] | 14.0.5 release
30 March 2019[21] | 14.0.6 release
30 December 2019[22] | 14.0.7 release
29 April 2020[23] | 14.0.8 release
1 November 2020[24] | 14.0.9 release
30 April 2021[25] | 14.0.10 release
31 October 2021[26] | 14.0.11 release
1 May 2022[27] | 14.0.12 release
30 Oct 2022[28] | 14.0.13 release
14.1.x
30 April 2023[29] | 14.1.0 release
29 October 2023[30] | 14.1.1 release
28 April 2024[31] | 14.1.2 release
27 October 2024[32] | 14.1.3 release
27 April 2025[33] | 14.1.4 release

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment: Keeping KDE 3 alive [LWN.net]". lwn.net. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
2. ^ Grüner, Sebastian. "KDE3-Fork integriert neue Software". golem.de. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
3. ^ Byfield, Bruce (29 June 2012). "Trinity KDE: KDE 3 Zombified or Resurrected?". Datamation. QuinStreet Inc. Archived from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
4. ^ Trinity Desktop Project. "Trinity Desktop Environment". Retrieved 3 November 2012.
5. ^ Smith, J, ed. (26 August 2017). "DistroWatch: Exe GNU/Linux". DistroWatch. Copenhagen, Denmark: Unsigned Integer Limited. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
6. ^ Smith, J, ed. (26 August 2017). "DistroWatch: Q4OS". DistroWatch. Copenhagen, Denmark: Unsigned Integer Limited. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
7. ^ "Release Notes For 3.5.12 - Trinity Desktop Project Wiki". wiki.trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
8. ^ "Trinity Applications". Trinity Desktop Environment. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
9. ^ Arindam (2022). "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.13 is now out with updates!". DebugPoint News. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
10. ^ Arindam (October 2023). "Trinity Desktop Environment 14.1.1: Your Classic Linux Desktop Choice". DebugPoint. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
11. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.0 Released!". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
12. ^ a b "KDE - Clipart". www.kde.org. Retrieved 2017-08-17.
13. ^ "Trinity News". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
14. ^ Pearson, Timothy (21 July 2013). "Trinity Desktop Environment 3.5.13.2 SRU Released!". trinity-announce (Mailing list). Archived from the original on 2013-08-02.
15. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.0 Released!". Trinity News. 2014-12-16. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
16. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.1 Released!". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
17. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.2 Released!". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
18. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.3 Released!". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
19. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.4 Released!". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
20. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.5 Released!". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
21. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.6 Released!". trinitydesktop.org. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
22. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.7 Released!". trinitydesktop.org.
23. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.8 Released!". trinitydesktop.org.
24. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.9 Released!". trinitydesktop.org.
25. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.10 Released!". trinitydesktop.org.
26. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.11 Released!". trinitydesktop.org.
27. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.12 Released!". trinitydesktop.org.
28. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.0.13 Released!". trinitydesktop.org.
29. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.0 Released!". Trinity News. 2023-04-30.
30. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.1 Released!". Trinity News. 2023-10-29.
31. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.2 Released!". Trinity News. 2024-04-28.
32. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.3 Released!". Trinity News. 2024-10-27.
33. ^ "Trinity Desktop Environment R14.1.4 Released!". Trinity News. 2025-04-27.

## External links

[edit]

* Free and open-source software portal
* Linux portal

* Official website
* git repository for viewers
* git repository for developers

* v
* t
* e

Desktop environments and window managers based on X11 or Wayland

Desktop
environments
(comparison)|

| GTK-based|

* Budgie
* Cinnamon
* GNOME
* 1
* 2
* 3
* GPE
* Java Desktop System
* LXDE
* MATE
* ROX Desktop
* Sugar
* Xfce

|

Qt-based|

* Deepin DE
* KDE SC
* 1
* 2
* 3
* 4
* Lumina
* LXQt
* Razor-qt
* Trinity
* UKUI

Motif-based|

* CDE
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* X.desktop

Other|

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(comparison)|

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|

Stacking|

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Tiling|

* awesome
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* ratpoison
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* wmii
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Wayland
compositors|

* Enlightenment
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Related|

* Display server
* Desktop metaphor
* GUI
* GUI widget
* Painter's algorithm
* Resolution independence
* Shell
* Virtual desktop
* Widget toolkit
* WIMP
* Windowing system

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