If you haven't heard yet, you've probably been under a rock since Thursday, but openSUSE 11.2 was released with KDE 4.3.1 as the default desktop.

openSUSE 11.2 KDE on a Intel 945GM netbook

Over at openSUSE News, the new KDE features in openSUSE 11.2 come under the spotlight before its release in a few days. KWin stalwart and openSUSE hacker Luboš Luňák bares his soul. See how KDE is presented as the default desktop on openSUSE, and find out how the openSUSE team made Firefox fit in on a KDE desktop.

openSUSE 11.1 is now out (screenshots), featuring KDE 4.1.3 and a string of KDE improvements. The release brings back the much-loved KDE-PIM suite, and includes new games, the KSCD CD player, KSystemLog to keep track of system changes, improvements to Dolphin, Konqueror (including Webkit part), Plasma (including auto-hide panel, folder view), Marble integration with OpenStreetMap, and much more. The release is available as an installable live CD, or on a DVD with KDE 3.5.10, GNOME, Xfce, and many more applications.

Official Slackware packages of KDE 4.1 (and dependencies) are now in the "Testing" directory of Slackware-current. See the changelog for more information, and read on for a quote from Slackware founder, Patrick Volkerding!

openSUSE 11.0 has been released (screenshots), offering KDE 3.5.9 and an excellent experience of KDE 4.0. There has been a huge collection of changes and additions in this new release. For an overview of the improvements in KDE, see the KDE Sneak Peeks article over at openSUSE News, which features an interview with KDE developer Stephan Binner. He talks about the challenges faced, plans for the future, and what changes you can expect in the upcoming KDE 4.1.

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.

KDE 4 is seen by many to be the next big step on the free software desktop, while many do not yet advise it for everyday use. Either way, it is an innovative release and in line with Fedora's goal of providing the latest and greatest free software it is set to be the default KDE environment in the next major release of Fedora. We caught up with a few members of the KDE Special Interest Group for an interview about the work they are doing to get it ready for release, their own opinions on the software and what they think about the progress made by Fedora in embracing KDE.

KDE's intrepid FAQ maintainer, Jes Hall (aka canllaith), spent some time getting cozy with the latest Kubuntu release and wrote a nice summary for our enjoyment. Get her thoughts on Gutsy Gibbon (Kubuntu 7.10) at her blog.

Within the past couple of weeks two Linux distributions came out with new releases, featuring the K Desktop Environment. On October 9th, Mandriva Linux 2008 released their latest version to the masses. KDE 3.5.7 and Compiz Fusion 0.5.2 are just a couple of the updates with this latest release. Head on over and take a Mandriva Linux 2008 Tour. On October 18th, Kubuntu 7.10 was released, marking its 6th major release. Kubuntu includes the last KDE 3.5.8, making it the first distribution to release the 8th maintenance update to the KDE 3.5 branch. There were many other updates in this latest release as well. Mandriva is the first distribution to include QtJambi, while Kubuntu adds Qyoto C# bindings.

openSUSE 10.3 has been released with a new single KDE installation CD option. It has an excellent delivery of KDE with the latest stable KDE 3.5.7 and the first parts of KDE 4: games, KRDC and KRFB. KDEPIM has also been upgraded to the enterprise branch, providing a few new features and countless fixes.