14 DAY TRIAL // There was a time when Windows and Linux were considered fierce rivals and the two really couldn’t stand each other, but Windows 10 stepped in to change everything.
Not only that it’s now possible to run Linux on top of Windows 10, but a lot of Linux apps are also migrating to the world of Windows 10 for a cross-platform experience.
KDE applications are particularly popular on Windows 10, as several are already available from the Microsoft Store, and more recently, another big name landed on Microsoft’s operating system promising the same experience as on Linux.
Elisa, which is “a modern and beautiful music player made with love by KDE,” as the official description published in the store reads, is now up for grabs from the Microsoft Store, of course with a free license. The app is obviously open source, and it’s supposed to read pretty much any audio files on a Windows 10 device, just like its Linux sibling.
Kate and Okular leading the Windows push
Other KDE apps listed for download in the Microsoft Store are particularly successful as well, and KDE says that the Kate text editor and the Okular reader app are the two enjoying the biggest success. Data provided by KDE provides us with a closer look at how its apps are doing on Windows 10:
- Kate - Advanced Text Editor - 23,524 acquisitions
- Okular - More than a reader - 16,154 acquisitions
- Filelight - Disk Usage Visualizer - 1,412 acquisitions
- KStars - Astronomy Software - 1,400 acquisitions
- Kile - A user-friendly TeX/LaTeX editor - 1,343 acquisitions
- Elisa - Modern Music Player - 40 acquisitions
KDE says anyone can help bring more of its apps to Windows 10, and the team links to an in-depth tutorial where developers can learn more about creating a new application and submitting it to the Microsoft Store.
At the end of the day, however, one thing is clear: Linux and Windows are now two modern-day BFFs, and this is unlikely to change in the short term.