KDE Plasma 6.2 adding a pop-up for donations, plus they want to make a next-generation KDE OS

A recent change was proposed last month to implement an on-by-default KDED (KDE Daemon) module that will gently ask you to donate to KDE as a pop-up on your notification system inside the KDE Plasma desktop, planned for version 6.2.

As per the merge request cited above and this blog post from developer Nate Graham regarding the situation, we can find the following rationale behind this implementation: KDE usually ask through various social media posts, official channels and yearly fundraisers and blog posts which Graham noted you "may get the impression that we’re always begging for cash". However, if you're not a follower of those and just an average KDE (Plasma) user, you might never know that KDE (The Foundation) has these donations requests constantly being asked, or never know it could be in need of funding.

Pictured - The donation request in KDE Plasma, although the button has now been changed to a less pushy "Donate" instead of "Donate Now".

With that in mind and the fact that other organizations already do this on a yearly basis (Thunderbird and Wikimedia for example), KDE decided to implement a KDED module that will ask for donations only once a year in Plasma 6.2+. While it may look intrusive, this is completely configurable for those which are packaging KDE so, it's up to each Linux distribution or users to disable it using the normal means of disabling KDED modules.

Something else to keep in mind is that they want to keep expanding too, they want to offer full-time employment to more people and hire more. On top of that, and quite exciting sounding, is that Graham noted in the blog post they eventually want to "fund the creation of a next-generation KDE OS we can offer directly to institutions looking to switch to Linux, and a hardware certification program to go along with it". Including (jokingly) they want to "take over the world" and get more distributions to use KDE Plasma by default.

Editor's opinion: I think it is fair for KDE to expose that they need funding and asking that from inside the UI would not hurt for a software that delivered so much for free (as in freedom and as in "gratis"). It is not cluttered, and does not seem to break anyone's workflow.