Decibel (KDE) Information & Decibel (KDE) Links at HealthHaven.com

Decibel
Developer(s)	KDE / supported by NLNet and basysKom
Stable release	0.5.0 / July 31, 2007
Operating system	unix-like
Type	Communications framework
License	GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1
Website	decibel.kde.org

Decibel is a new communication framework for KDE4, the current major release of the K Desktop Environment. Decibel aims to integrate all communication protocols into the desktop. As of now users have all their contacts in different applications: AOL, MSN, E-mail, Skype, etc. Decibel will store all contacts in one place and make it easier for the user to manage and communicate with his/her contacts.

For example Alice wants to talk to Bob. Alice requests to start a connection to Bob and a service manager takes in the requests and chooses the best way to communicate to Bob (depending on telephone number, e-mail address, etc), and opens up a connection to Bob. This way, Alice can contact her friends no matter what protocol they are using.

Currently the Decibel project is unmaintained, but the integration of Telepathy into KDE is still very active.^[1]

[edit] Features

Decibel functions as a desktop agnostic daemon which uses the Telepathy protocol for communication protocols, adding features to reduce the effort and complexity needed to integrate real time communication into applications. Like Telepathy, Decibel offers services using D-Bus, so any D-Bus aware application can take advantage of Decibel's services. Decibel is able to manage desktop specific actions, protocol configuration and account management. Desktop specific actions would including launching GUIs written in the desktop native toolkit, like Qt or GTK+, or using the desktop's Personal Information Manager to store passwords and other account information.

[edit] Use in KDE 4

Decibel was not ready for the release of KDE 4.2. Both Kopete and Pidgin will make their current protocols available through the Telepathy specification while official telepathy components mature.