On January 27, a year after the release of the first KDE 4 version, KDE 4.2 "The Answer" will be released. This release will feature stabilisation and feature completion and is likely to be taken up by a wide audience of users. To celebrate the important event in KDE's history with our fans all around the world we would like to invite our community members to organise a release party. It is all up to the organising teams to make it just the way you like it. There could be presentations, workshops, maybe some translation marathons, a hacking contest, just some socialising fun with a drink or two. It can be short and sweet or a whole-day event. Do not be afraid to invite some local press to the event to get the word about KDE out there into the wide world. If you decide to throw a party, or know about one, do add it to the list of party locations.
Comments
s/stabalisation/stabilisation
Any one deciding to throw a party 'down under'?
What about Jamaica? I will be there on the 27th, would love to celebrate the 4.2 release.
> stabalisation and feature completement
In other words - you're claiming that on Jan 27 we'll have the first beta-quality KDE4 release? Actually I didn't think KDE4 would leave alpha-stage before 4.3 :). Cool!
> Actually I didn't think KDE4 would leave alpha-stage before 4.3
I'd say don't hold your breath for it, 4.4 or probably 4.5 will the first stable/full featured release. Right now, there are still too many outstanding issues, but it's usable though I wouldn't install it or tell friends to install it, they would get a very bad impression of KDE. I just tell them to stay with 3.5 or Gnome for now.
I have KDE4 on a desktop, and Windows Vista on a laptop. If MS can call that gold, then we can call KDE4.2 beta. And I still prefer KDE4.2 because it is more stable than Vista, even when the underlying OS is beta.
4.2 beta2 really rocks. In my impression, it goes further than KDE 3.5, although not completely as stable as 3.5 (how could it be!).
4.1 was quite usable for me, but from 4.2 I'm all in for the 4th generation the K Desktop Environment.
I agree.
4.0 was a disaster, but 4.1 is good enough for daily use. Now I can not work without KDE 4.1, and never think of jumping back to KDE 3.5.x.
Go KDE, I believe that you can make it. :-)
Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents instead of sit back silently like usual -- I agree! Too much needless negativity on here lately, and not enough congratulations or at least constructive criticism.
4.x has made superb progress, I use 4.1 now and love it, and flinch at the thought of going back to 3.5 -- not that 3.5 is bad, it was a joy to use, but it looks somewhat "antique" now, once you've used KDE4. It's a much smoother experience in general; the under-the-hood work that went in I think shows itself in all of the little settings and toolbars and even look-n-feel, things you can't really point out on command but you can tell when they're not there. That's how I feel with 3.5 now, it's just not quite right anymore. 4 is my home. It's both usable and beautiful.
I tried the 4.2 betas on OpenSUSE, sure a little buggy here and there but already leaps and bounds above 4.1, and those little nitpicks sound like they'll be ironed out in the official release. And, I am quite sure future releases will only improve exponentially! Particularly now that other apps like Amarok and KOffice are reaching their new iterations (which I've used those betas too and like what I see), it's all coming together into a terrific package that looks and feels very modern and very streamlined.
Congratulations to everyone that has worked on KDE in any manner, you've done wonderful work!
and to mention i run's on windows an mac too !!!!
this is so great !
Kde4 is rocking hard, with lots of bugs fixed, and the desktop shell plasma is a dream come true
Some screenies
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/8224/snapshot3yz5.jpg
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/151/snapshot2ew5.jpg
:)
ps: screenies contain bugs, found them yet? :)
Totally forgot to mention the rate at which booogs are fixed, one word - amazing :) It is starting to shape into a solid release
ps: those screenshots were used to highlight some bugs, i.e., used in my bug reports - they are already fixed or being worked on :)
I also agree!
With KDE 4.2, KDE is not only rocking, but starts shining!
The development and stabilization speed is incredible!
Cheers!
My girl friend started using KDE 4.1 with OpenSUSE 11.1. There are no visible performance problems (on a one year old all-Intel notebook), no crashes until now (except kwin when using OpenGL screensavers) and it looks just awesome :-)
Alex
I see in your screenshot the return of the ksysguard and other applet for the taskbar. I really missed those in 4.1.
Is 4.2 going to be optimized any better? I found 4.1 on Fedora10 a bit slow, though relatively stable.
well the first applet (multiple bars is cpu/mem/network - meters) is in kdereview - this one is for kde4.3, but you can get it from here: http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/kdereview/plasma
the other separate meters are the cpu usage and network usage plasmoids moved to the panel :)
4.0 wasn't a disaster, it was a beta release to get people porting their applications to 4.0. The only problem with 4 was that too many people did not understand this, and took it up expecting it to be a fully featured, fully working system.
I've been using KDE 4 since the beta's of 4, and have yet to understand all the negativity about it, except that maybe some of the people complaining just like to be negative.
I could not agree more.
One lesson learned from the KDE4 release is that when (or if :-) ) KDE5 is to be released then the naming of the first "platform" release should make it clear that it's not intended for everyone.
cya /
I could not disagree more.
"Beta" release means reasonable feature-completeness and stability level. 4.0 was an ALPHA release. We're only getting to beta quality right now. It wasn't a disaster - it was only an inappropriately named developer preview version showing great promise, and also annoying a hell of a lot of users that got misled by the version tag.
The only disaster I see here is at the marketing - not technical - level.
I agree. Although things didn't go as quickly as expected -- do they ever? (Murphy is always on the job). It looks like the 4.2 release will be a good solid public Beta. Why the releases were not properly labled is a great mystery to me and it is unfortunate that the developers were criticized because of this when the only legitimate criticism was that it was taking too long. Please, nobody take offense at that, users aways want it yesterday -- for users, everything takes too long.
It looks like 4.2 has some new features that I really like, and it is still missing some little ones that I use every day in 3.5. But, I will consider it to be the public Beta and try to make any comments in that context.
I agree with you. There are a few missing bits and pieces like Kaffeine 4 isn't finished yet and doesn't have a Kaffeine icon (not blaming the KDE guys since Kaffeine is a different project). The same applies to a few other programmes and the hardware notifier/solid whatever isn't quite fit as yet but some things are further that 3.5x, it has features that 3.5x doesn't have and it's getting better everyday.
Well, I really miss a KDE4 Rosegarden, with Solid and Phonon support. And a Qt4 Scribus too. The latter is well under way, the former... is in alpha. But we must wait...
Oh man, let's open a forum bashing.kde.org where all those KDE4-haters may whine as much as they want...
KDE 4.1.3 and 4.2beta2 work like a charm on my machines, I had no plasma crashes since 4.0.4 (except some driver issues), and the bug fixing rate is incredible (2 days ago I reported a panel bug, it was fixed in a heartbeat).
It's the same as with amarok 2: The devs make a totally new powerful code, but when presented many people complain that it has not yet all the features the old version has. They don't see that the new applications may run natively on other os (I love using dolphin and amarok on win) and that in their x.0 releases they are just a _base_ on which one can implement new an better features - take a look at the upcoming amarok 2.1, that'll be a killer app!
I would say, let's open a forum to bash those who bash KDE 4 :D
There are still issues yes but I can't understand people who call 4 an Alpha. Where are we? Why can't they see the progress and improvements?
it's really hard to please all the people all the time.
That's usually because people have their pet feature that doesn't work (or that works differently). Yesterday my sister's boyfriend was complaining you couldn't move icons from one panel to the other in KDE 4.2 and I showed him the solution in 5 minutes (also triggering a bug, which I have already reported to BKO).
So you're saying it takes 5 minutes to move an icon from one panel to another? And that is supposed to be a good thing? Why cant drag-and-drop work like it used to?
You have to remember, people used KDE 3.5 because they LIKED the features that it had, and the interaction with the desktop components. That's why it garnered a userbase in the first place.
Changing user interface conventions, failing to emphasize feature parity, and making GUI changes that are not justified by real scientific usability testing is a good way to alienate those users who like KDE for the features and GUI: in other words, a good way to alienate ALL users.
I'm glad your experience with your sister's boyfriend showed you that five minutes to perform a simple task, and then discovering a bug in the process, is unacceptable for anything other than alpha-level software. Perhaps you'll be willing to understand the critical point of view from now on.
And did either I or parent do any "bashing" of KDE? I love the progress being made - I am simply saying it is *not ready yet*. I am looking forward to seeing the first release-quality KDE4 desktop (which I hope will happen this year). I only object to the version naming policy - where clearly unfinished alpha-quality builds get a stable version number.
Seriously, some people get overly touchy after the bash-athon that ensued after the first KDE4 release - with people spouting nonsense about "going Gnome", or similar. Calm down! ;)
I've been using Linux & KDE for 8 years now.
Maybe it's because I use it for usual work (I wouldn't say I'm a power user), but since 4.1 the new KDE fits my demands very well, being nearly as stable as 3.5, at the same time it makes so much fun that I started exploring Linux more thoroughly then ever before.
In my opinion asserting that 4.2 has alpha quality ist already kind of bashing. Yes, it's beta, but I use it nearly every day on my lesser used pc, and it works just like a charm.
So, sorry if my reaction was a bit harshe, but let's not get carried away by that KDE4-must-have-everything-after-1-year-which-KDE3-had-after-5-years.
I never said 4.2 is (going to be) alpha quality. I've been saying that I EXPECTED it to be alpha quality like 4.1, and am very happy that, judging by what I've seen and heard, it looks like it will achieve what I consider beta quality. There was no irony in that.
And I'm not saying that KDE 4 must have everything. I'm only saying that a release that purports being final SHOULD NOT feel severely underpowered when compared to previous releases. Yeah, so maybe I am a power-user pampered by the has-it-all-and-more KDE 3.5. Maybe casual users do not run into the overwhelming majority of problems, bugs and un-features I am annoyed at. But given the severity of some of them, I think that "finality" should really start AGAIN to mean something.
And did I say something different? I said I am looking forward to 4.2 being the first BETA quality release - there is still some distance to cover to stable :).
define beta and stable, please
Maybe I'll start from the end :).
"stable":
1. Feature-complete - usable, no missing (but advertised) features, should not feel severely inferior in features when compared to previous stable versions.
2. Stable (as the name suggests ;)). Hangs or crashes very rare, rare enough not to annoy the users too much ;). OK to use in production environment.
"beta":
1. Reasonably feature-complete - no major features lacking to the following stable release (some may be unpolished, but should be usable). May have some minor features lacking or not usable (yet).
2. Reasonably stable - may hang or crash from time to time, or have many annoying bugs - but should be OK for daily use by people not afraid to run into some occasional (and sometimes often) breakage (and then report it - after all this is what beta releases are for!). If an application crashes or corrupts data or screws up things in some other way often enough to make it practically unusable, it is NOT beta quality yet.
3. Expect many bugs - this goes without saying about betas ;)
"alpha":
Development build not yet meeting the above criteria (but showing progress towards them)
Now while KDE 4.0 did meet beta stability criterion, and KDE 4.1 got stable enough for a final release, they both don't meet the feature criterion. While the libraries may be fairly complete, the desktop itself still has many issues, and, well, it feels IMHO simply primitive and poor when compared to KDE 3.5. Some flashy visual effects won't hide lack of features. There are also many other, quite major issues like the obnoxious "no root mode in system settings" problem. And many annoying bugs also. I did not try out KDE 4.2 betas myself, so I don't have any basis to talk about them - though I do have high hopes for 4.2.
All in all, I very much like the progress I am seeing with KDE4. It is definitely going the right direction, and at an amazing pace. Still, the road in that direction is long (rewriting the entire desktop from scratch is no easy task). I very much hope that KDE 4.2 will achieve beta quality, and become a viable (though not nearly on par in features and usability) alternative to 3.5. While I don't think that by 4.3 it will be mature enough to be called "stable", I do have hopes that it will be enough for me to switch to it. Till that time, I'll keep my marvelous KDE 3.5 as my primary desktop :).
And no, I don't remember any Micro$oft software deserving to be called "stable".
"In other words - you're claiming that on Jan 27 we'll have the first beta-quality KDE4 release?"
Beta quality according to whose criteria? Alas, you don't get to set those criteria yourself. The developers do.
Since when did beta mean stable? Heck a .0 *final* release is rarely stable in any world.
Only thing i would like to say, KDE4.2 is ready for it, applications are shifting nice up, and its getting really stable, yeah maby some problems, but i am sure they will get fixed.
And some problems are distro related, yeah Kubuntu please do a good job on 9.04 and fix the Intel GMA bug please, that will make KDE4 run even better.
Oh i hope Jos or someone else will organise a party for Belgium, Netherland, i am from The Netherland but i spend much time in Belgium.
I'm still waiting for KWin with effects not to be as slow as molasses. I'm also waiting for Oxygen to de-uglify. They have made strides in the right direction, but menus are still terrible with too much extra space and strange coloration. I guess I can use QtCurve in the meantime (after all, who still uses Plastik on 3.5?). Also, console is missing some features, like the ability to set the size of the window to, say, 80x24 and also have it stay. It's just completely gone that option. Kinda Gnome-like thinking if you ask me.
Konsole resizing was broken a bit for me after updating to KDE 4.1.2, but the ability to save window size was fixed in KDE 4.1.3. In short, the konsole issue was a bug, not a deliberate removal of a feature. :)
I don't know what type of hardware/video card you are using but I am using an Intel GMA 3100
on the desktop and a GMA 855 on the laptop and I haven't seen any sign of slowness. The only problem that I have is that the effects (not KWin) crash without a warning sometimes.
Concerning the Oxygen Theme, yes there is room for improvement but in all honesty, I haven't seen a better KDE 4 Theme until now - not even Bespin, but maybe I have a weird taste like I have already pointed out.
I have an ATI Radeon X300, which works fine with any compositing manager except KWin's. And not just fine, I mean really good, flawless. On my Gentoo install, I can use kompmgr and the performance is almost on par with what you get with no compositing manager, yet I get the effects with very little CPU usage. On Ubuntu, compiz works great and is about as fast as Ubuntu will let it be (given that Ubuntu apparently has applied CFLAGS or something that cause GUI performance to be slower -- I actually measured with gtkperf and x11perf and the performance is notably slower than what I have on Gentoo). Yet KWin4 with effects in enabled is a bear. Moving windows around is extremely choppy. Shadows don't quite work. It crashes. It's a terrible experience. Apparently nobody else has my video card because it hasn't been fixed in the months I've been testing it. I guess I should file a bug report, but honestly, I don't see why it shouldn't work given that compiz and kompmgr work just fine on the same machine with the same settings.
> I guess I should file a bug report, but honestly, I don't see why it shouldn't work given that compiz and kompmgr work just fine on the same machine with the same settings.
Please file a bug report if something is broken! :-) The story at http://dot.kde.org/1225989053/1226032356/1226052540/1226061674/1226062853/ tells us the following funny anecdote:
""
I'm reminded of the time when everyone was complaining about the fact that Digg was clearly broken in Khtml, and no one actually bothered to report it because it was so "obviously" broken. What they didn't realise, of course, is that none of the Khtml devs (quite sensibly) ever visit Digg! :)
""
I've filed half a dozen bug reports relating to rendering or effects in KDE 4.x, and every one has been closed as "WONTFIX", "WORKSFOR ME" or "INVALID". The typical reasons given were "it's not our bug" and "it must be your video card".
Could even be that the developers are right in those cases :-)
Regardless of whose fault it is, a bug is still a bug. Especially when the bug ONLY happens in KDE4. KDE developers can't fix X.org bugs, but they should do more than just close the bug. Perhaps offer a workaround? Perhaps forward the information off to the project in question? Perhaps direct the user to the other bug database so they can vote on it?
> Apparently nobody else has my video card because it hasn't been fixed in the months I've been testing it
Or they do, but their configuration works fine. Please understand the issue could be caused by several layers of the software stack, up to xorg.conf settings or (in case of Gentoo) different CFLAGS.
I have an ATI Radeon X300 RV370 card and I do not have the same issues you state here. Of course this particular card absolutely sucks! Specially if you have the SE (Standard Edition) version. Regardless, you did not mention whether or not you are using the ATI binary drivers (fglrx) or the open source ones (radeon) so no one can help you out.
Perhaps mentioning the bug report number you opened might prompt others who have the same card as you and encountered the same problems to help you out ???
I have the same card and my mistake was to try to get the closed-source fglrx driver to work properly with KDE4. I tried all xorg.conf options to no avail. Choppy movement of windows etc. Very bad. Since I've switched to the open source "radeon" driver I haven't had any problems except some kind of video garbage showing for an instant when a new window or menu was about to appear which was supposedly caused due to broken Ubuntu xorg packages. Since I've upgraded those packages the problem went away (Google for "video garbage kde4").
Yeah, I made a comment about sluggishness of Kwin before. However, I now realise it's plasma - I think... If I move a window around with another window in the background it's fast and responsive. If it touches plasma, it sloooooooes downs. Maybe we need a way to turn off plasma or have a very light, no shadow or transparency theme for plasma. That way those with black listed VGA cards or slow ones can still use KDE4.
Would that fix it? If so, I may just go and make one. What do you guys think?
Oh and anyone want to part in Sapporo? I'm game. If we could get dragon suits from ドンキホッティ we could ski in those! Yay! The freaks!
Son, if the devs don't know where you problem is then they can't fix it. I am 101.1% sure that it's not Plasma because Plasma is one of the most stable parts of KDE 4 in the meantime. Maybe it's Xorg, or nVidia or badly compiled packages, wrong/bad settings. It can be a 1000 things but I doubt that it's KWin or Plasma.