K Desktop Environment (KDE) 3.1, including improved support for Palm OS device synchronization. KDE is one of the two main desktop environments for GNU/Linux operating systems, and has long focused on a fully-integrated desktop environment, including desktop-handheld connectivity. The new version includes an improved KPilot conduit manager, as well as several new conduits. In addition to the standard PIM conduits, KPilot now includes conduits for automatic time synchronization with the desktop (most GNU/Linux desktops are also easily synched with an atomic clock) and a natively written AvantGo client. Ironically, AvantGo is still struggling with its own OS 5 compatible version, and Free Software competitor Plucker does not require a separate conduit. Work is already under-way for KDE 3.2, which includes driver libraries to make it easier to write conduits for project management programs such as the Free Software Progect, ShadowPlan, ListMaker, and BrainForest.
PalmSource does not support GNU/Linux systems, nor does it provide much developer information for it, but Free Software developers with the KDE project and independent of it have for a long time managed to maintain fairly good compatibility and synchronization with the core suite of applications. Conduits for 3rd party applications are still rare, however.">