KDE Dot News

Fedora 9 Released with KDE 4.0.3

Tue, 13 May 2008 08:33:35 +0000

The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 9, codenamed "Sulphur". As your periodic table will tell you, Sulphur is the element below Oxygen, a fitting release name for the third major distribution to ship KDE 4.0 (congrats to Mandriva and Kubuntu for getting there first) and the first to make it the only version of the desktop. Fedora 9 includes KDE 4.0.3. Unfortunately, KDE 4.0.4 was released too late to make it in, but there is no need to despair, it is already available in updates-testing and is expected to become a stable, tested update in a few days. To support your existing KDE 3 applications such as Kontact, Amarok and K3b, Fedora 9 includes compatibility libraries from KDE 3.5.9. As always, the KDE Live CD is installable. New in Fedora 9, the live image can also be converted to a persistent USB key. The release notes have a section dedicated to KDE 4.

In addition to the inclusion of KDE 4 as the default KDE, Fedora 9 also comes with other major new features, such as the switch to Upstart to handle system startup, an improved NetworkManager including support for mobile broadband and systemwide configuration, a new, fast version of X.Org X11, TexLive replacing tetex, unified spellchecking dictionaries and much more.

If that was not enough to convince you, you can have a look at some screenshots showing KDE 4 on Fedora 9. (The first few screenshots are of the installer, so scroll down to see the KDE ones.)

Akademy 2008 Embedded and Mobile Day - Call for Participation

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:08:17 +0000

The EmSys research group is hosting an "Embedded and Mobile Day" at Akademy 2008, this year in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium at Campus De Nayer. We welcome you to join the presentations and panel discussions about Open Source and Open Desktop technologies in embedded systems and mobile devices on Tuesday 12 August 2008.

We are looking for your contribution in the form of presentations, papers or demos about:

Embedded Linux
Mobile and integrated GUIs
System Integration
Embedded Development tools and distros
Innovation based on Open Source and Open Desktop technology

The deadline for submission is June 16th 2008. Submissions may be send to akademy-emmobile@lists.denayer.wenk.be

Parallel with the presentations a Device Plugfest will be held in an adjacent room. Everyone is invited to bring their USB, Bluetooth, UPnP, IrDA or other consumer devices to test and improve the interoperability with Linux, HAL and KDE. Take a look at the huge donation from Conceptronic.

More information can be found at the Embedded and Mobile page on the Akademy 2008 website

KOffice 2.0 Alpha 7 Released

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:06:10 +0000

The KDE Project today announced the release of KOffice version 2.0 Alpha 7, a technology preview of the upcoming version 2.0. This version adds a lot of polish, some new features in Kexi and KPresenter and especially better support for the OpenDocument format. It is clear that the release of KOffice 2.0 with all the new technologies it brings is drawing nearer.

This is mainly a technology preview for those that are interested in the new ideas and technologies of the KOffice 2 series.

The Alpha 7 release is a work in progress. This release introduces improvements in almost all the components as well as in the common infrastructure. All the applications saw big changes, both bugfixes and new features.

Ongoing Polish

The release notes for Alpha 6 noted the addition of snap-guides that will guide the user when he or she is placing objects near other objects in any direction, Alpha 7 adds a bounding-box snapping option for even more powerful snapping options. This release has also added the option for users to configure shape-shadows in the form of a new dock widget.

Report Generator for Kexi

There is a whole new set of features in Kexi, the most important of which is a new report generator. This allows the user to create a document based on the data in the database with features like charting and scripting.

New Features in Krita

Krita has received a lot of attention e.g. general polish and bugfixing. Krita has additionally received a new plugin type which will allow both KOffice developers as well as 3rd party developers to create new pixel-generator filters, such as clouds or fractal generators.

Developer Focus on KPresenter

The KOffice developers decided to focus their efforts to make KPresenter an application that will be released in the 2.0 suite. This has given KPresenter a lot of page-effects in this release, but has managed to do more work on master page editing as well. Much of the work on the KOffice libraries have been specially selected because it benefits KPresenter in particular.

Improved OpenDocument Support

This release is the first to see some results of the OpenDocument Format testsuite being imported into KOffice. The testsuite exists from a lot of little documents that each show one feature in ODF. Automated testing of loading those documents will allow developers to keep on working on the code without fear of breaking the already working code. This is known as regression testing.

In this release already 23 tests are added into KOffice and the results are visible in much better loading of text documents in KWord. KWord is also one of the target applications for 2.0, and NLNet has sponsored a developer working on that application.

KOffice 2 is still under heavy development. It is not meant as something to be used for any real work and can crash at any point. However, here are some of the highlights of the upcoming KOffice 2 series. Note that not all of the new technologies will be fully implemented in the first release, 2.0.0.

KDE 4.0.4 Out Now, Codenamed File-Not-Found

Wed, 07 May 2008 01:55:21 +0000

Another month, another update to the KDE 4.0 series. This time, we are presenting KDE 4.0.4, dubbed File-Not-Found to the audience. KDE 4.0.4 brings improvements to KHTML, Okular and various other components. We recommend that people who are already running KDE 4.0 releases update to 4.0.4. The emphasis of this release lies, as usual in stabilising, bugfixing, performance improvements and updated translations -- no new features. The developers have again squashed quite some bugs which you can find some of in the changelog. With this release, the KDE community continues to support the KDE 4.0 series that has been released for brave users earlier this year. KDE 4.1, to be released this summer (in the northern-hemisphere) will bring new features and applications. KDE 4.1 is based on the recently released Qt 4.4 while KDE 4.0.4 is still based on Qt 4.3 as is the case with the whole KDE 4.0 series. So put on your update shoes and install 4.0.4 today.

Qt 4.4 Released

Tue, 06 May 2008 08:49:10 +0000

Trolltech have released Qt 4.4. This is a major release with many new features including WebKit, KDE's Phonon, Concurrency, Widgets on the Canvas and XQuery. This video covers what's new. Ars Technica has an in depth look while release dude Thiago has blogged with the now traditional developers' group photo.

People Behind KDE: Jeremy Paul Whiting

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:13:46 +0000

In a new series of People Behind KDE interviews, we visit the United States of America to meet a KDE developer with an affinity for education, accessibility, and Asian culture, a person who works on getting you Hot New Stuff - tonight's star of People Behind KDE is Jeremy Paul Whiting.

Deadline for Akademy 2008 Presentation Proposals Extended

Mon, 05 May 2008 13:12:00 +0000

The programme committee of the Akademy 2008 KDE contributor's conference would like to thank everybody who already has submitted a proposal for a presentation at Akademy 2008. The conference programme is beggining to gain shape. Due to popular request the program committee would like to solicit additional proposals and has decided to extend the deadline for submission of proposals to Monday, May 12th. Tell the world about your contribution to KDE. Tell the community what cool things you have done with KDE. Submit your proposal for a presentation at Akademy 2008 no later than Monday, May 12th 2008, 23:59 UTC, to akademy-talks-2008@kde.org.

KDE Italia will be at Open Mind 2008

Mon, 05 May 2008 13:02:26 +0000

KDE Italia is attending this year's Open Mind Free Software event from May 8 to May 10, 2008. This event is tailored for all people with an emphasis on young students. Giovanni Venturi and Daniele Costarella will give a presentation on KDE 4 as well as provide further information on KDE applications during their workshop. Open Mind is located at Villa Bruno - San Giorgio a Cremano - Napoli - Italy. There will be a KDE Italia booth at the event where you can go for more information on the team as well as KDE. Please stop by and say hello to Giovanni Venturi and the rest of KDE Italia.

KDE Commit-Digest for 20th April 2008

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:09:22 +0000

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest: The start of the Google Summer of Code with 47 KDE projects. Initial version of a kxsldbg plugin for Quanta. Kross-based scripting in KDevelop. Tabs return to the kdevplatform (KDevelop, etc) interface framework. A database plugin for Kommander, with Kommander widgets becoming accessible within Designer. Support for file attachment and sound annotations in Okular. Work on support for JavaScript runners, and an enhanced visual appearance for KRunner in Plasma. Desktop search returns to KRunner. An improved implementation of "Send Input to All" in Konsole. "Close buttons on the right side of tabs" in kdelibs. A search KIOSlave for virtual search folders across KDE. Get Hot New Stuff support for KDE splash themes and chat window styles in Kopete. A "wobbly windows" effect and non-linear timelines in KWin. The start of a WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) backend for Solid. Rewrite of connection management in Konversation. Work on playlist modes and tooltips in Amarok 2. A media player plugin to play audio and video files in KTorrent. Initial work on charting/graphing and spreadsheets for Kexi reports. Work starts on a Kexi Web Forms Daemon. Initial imports of KLesson, SuperPong, and a KDE 4 version of KNetworkManager. KBreakout and KSirk move from playground/games to kdereview. KSanePlugin moves from playground/graphics to kdereview. printer-applet moves from kdereview to kdebase. Okteta moves from kdereview to kdeutils. Read the rest of the Digest here.

KDE 4.1 Alpha 1 in the News

Thu, 01 May 2008 09:50:40 +0000

Ryan Paul over at Ars Technica is at it again, this time with an early review of KDE 4.1 Alpha 1. He writes, "This alpha release marks the start of the 4.1 feature freeze, so virtually all of the remaining developer effort between now and the official 4.1 release in July will focus on bug-fixing, polish, and stability." Features that are listed as planned for 4.1 can still be implemented for 4.1. Next, our friends at Polish Linux are at it once again, bringing us a visual review of KDE 4.1 of revision 802150, which roughly corresponds to Alpha 1. Buried in the article, I found this interesting bit of news, "Kwin features a new visual effect known to most of you from Compiz: the Wobbly Windows."