The software of the GNU project and the 
Linux kernel thus formed the basis for 
an operating system which has since been 
completed by the efforts of numerous m-embers 
of the free software and open source software 
communities. Significant milestones include:
The launch of the KDE desktop environment 
by Matthias Ettrich in October 1996 followed 
by the comparable GNOME alternative by 
Miguel de Icaza in August 1997, both based 
on the X11 windowing system developed at MIT.
 GNOME and KDE were the tip of the Linux 
operating system iceberg that was now in 
direct contact with end users. 
The release of the Netscape browser's 
source code on March 31st, 1998, which 
kicked off the Mozilla project that would 
eventually give birth to the popular 
Mozilla Firefox browser. 
 
OpenOffice.org 2.0 - Writer : Word processor component of the multi-platform free software office suite.
The release of StarOffice by Sun Microsystems 
which in June 2000 became the base for the 
free software OpenOffice.org office suite, 
a major event in the open source office world. 
See also: list of free software.