KDE 3.1: Well Worth the Wait

The KDE Project today
announced
the release of KDE 3.1, "a major feature upgrade to the third
generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for Linux
and other UNIXes.
"
While you are busy downloading
the new packages for this fabulous release, we hope you will enjoy the
über-cool (disclaimer:
I wrote it) KDE
3.1 Feature Guide
, as well as a sortable
KDE 3.1 Requirements
page, both new for this release. And if that's not enough, you can also
check out the detailed
ChangeLog. And - ah yes - there are also screenshots. So much to do today . . . .

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Comments

by Terry (not verified)

The KDE team mentioned SVG icons in it's PR material for the 3.1 release, so my comment was quite justified. As to your preference for running a non AA desktop, it is exactly that. YOUR preference.

by Datschge (not verified)

Support for SVG icons has been in the to-do list for 3.2 for quite some time now. I guess you are mixing that up with the fact that the included Crystal icon theme is originally mostly in SVG already which has been statet at many places.

by Rayiner Hashem (not verified)

Um, running an AA desktop is *your* preference. Why should one be more relevent than the other?

by Fooman (not verified)

Some people don't actually like AA. Hard to believe eh? It seems AA only became the latest "fad" after some Windows release added it. Why?

by SadEagle (not verified)

I think one big factor on liking and not liking AA is the monitor (plus the tons of different FreeType versions, etc.). I personally didn't like AA on my previous monitor, which was a fined-pitched CRT. My new LCD panel, however, has much coarser grain and so AA is a must.

It's also a matter of fonts -- some fonts render horribly w/o AA, too.

by khalid (not verified)

I agree AA on LCD is really orgasmic, nothing to have with CRT !

by matiz (not verified)

The crystal-icons-svg package works fine for me in kde3.1-rc6... don't know how it is with 3.1final. will not be able to download+compile before friday :(

by met (not verified)

> Why not have AA turned on for these shots?

Because AA is not good for normal font ranges unless you are on a LCD monitor. Windows mimics this behavior, and it's the right thing to do (tm). Apple's behavior in MacOSX and Be's BeOS don't exactly do it right.

by Antiphon (not verified)

Not true. If you are using ClearType, all sizes are anti-aliased. I think that the idea is a good one, provided that the hinting is less at the smaller sizes.

Note: Since the introduction of Plus! for 95, fonts in Windows were antialiased at sizes >=14 and <=6

by Datschge (not verified)

Well, Win 95 had it build in already at that point, the plus package just offered the fitting setting option for users to actually activate it.

by Antiphon (not verified)

Very true. But I doubt that anyone did so until Plus came along.

OT: OS/2 never had antialiasing, did it?

by met (not verified)

> If you are using ClearType, all sizes are anti-aliased.

Well, obviously, since ClearType is made for, and should be really only used in LCD screens :)

by Grammar Nazi (not verified)

I love the desktop guide. It does an excellent job of explaining and illustrating the new features.

One complaint: On page 7 in the desktop section, it says "offers users a panacopia of new goodies". Panacopia is not a word, at least not an existing word in English. Do a google or dictionary.com search if you're in doubt. While I'm all for creative linguistic expression, "cornucopia" might be a better choice here.

Sorry about the minor complaint. Congratulations on KDE 3.1 and the excellent guide.

by Dr_LHA (not verified)

Perhaps they meant "Cornucopia".

by Dr_LHA (not verified)

...and I should really read your posting fully :-)

by repugnant (not verified)

Is it a cornucopia that thinks its a panacea, or a panacea that thinks its a cornucopia?

by Chris Kuhi (not verified)

One complaint: On page 7 in the desktop section, it says "offers users a panacopia of new goodies". Panacopia is not a word, at least not an existing word in English. Do a google or dictionary.com search if you're in doubt. While I'm all for creative linguistic expression, "cornucopia" might be a better choice here.

I presume they mean panoply

-chris

by taj (not verified)

But why?? It's a perfectly cromulent word!

by Antiphon (not verified)

That remark is absolutely flibin! :-P

by Iestyn Guest (not verified)

Yep, I think cornucopia fits better - More in line with a veritable smorgasbord of eye candy and features...

by tony (not verified)

Me thinks that shmoopy best defliberizes the entire bitter diatribe that ye are basing your platform on!

Just like the title says, what's the best way to install all those packages.
Any particular order?
A small guide would help a lot of people.
Thanks.

What I would suggest, is wait for SuSE to make it available in the Update Service:

http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/linuks/index.html

For now they only offer 3.0.4, but I hope they will have 3.1 soon. Otherwise this service would be pretty useless... On my 7.3 upgrading to 3.0.4 worked without any problems.

Debian caused a strange problem. 3.0.5a was packed in veerrryyy much packages. One should uninstall (dpkg -r) most of them, like kdcop, kscreensaver and so on. If you get dependency problems, first do "apt-get install kdebase; dpkg -r kpresenter" and then also remove "libarts1-qt". Then it worked for me.
As you see, kpresenter depends on "libarts1-qt". However, this conflicts with "libarts1" from KDE 3.1. So I cannot use KPresenter anymore :(

Or is there a solution for this?

It seems to me that SuSE has basically stopped providing anything new in its Update Service. They've missed 3.05 and 3.05a, so what are the chances of 3.1?
Happy waiting!

by And thank you f... (not verified)

kde3.0.5a are included in the suse online update via YOU or apt.
I expect 3.1 appearing in these services soon.

bye
0x1

Apt with SuSE?

D.

Agree ! apt4rpm is really a must, after using it for updating redaht I am really satified with it.

Sucessfuly installed on three machines so far - no glitches:
1. download all KDE3.1 rpm's
2. go to that directory
3. rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs
4. run 'SuSEconfig'
5. restart X-server
done

I had two or three packages initially popping up with dependency issue, but I just removed them (gets reinstalled with 3.1 anyway).
So far - loving it!

Will this method work for Suse 7.2

I too have 7.2 and would like to upgrade.

I've tried following the directions above:

1. download all KDE3.1 rpm's
2. go to that directory
3. rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs
4. run 'SuSEconfig'
5. restart X-server

But it keeps going back into the KDE 2 desktop. Please help!

Thanks,
Ken

And what about SuSe 8.0? Will it work?

Here's what did the trick on my SuSE 8.0 workstation (Updated via Y.O.U.) - told in plain english:

-first downloaded all (see below) the packages ;-) - most of them should be available now on SuSE FTP mirrors...
-used konsole to type 'su' to install as root
-typed the following:

rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs kdeadmin3-3.1.2-4.i386.rpm kdeartwork3-3.1.2-20.i386.rpm kdebase3-3.1.2-13.i386.rpm kdebase3-ksysguardd-3.1.2-13.i386.rpm kdebindings3-3.1-44.i386.rpm kdebindings3-mozilla-3.1-44.i386.rpm kdegraphics3-3.1.2-4.i386.rpm kdelibs3-3.1.2-3.i386.rpm kdemultimedia3-3.1.2-1.i386.rpm kdenetwork3-3.1.2-3.i386.rpm kdepim3-3.1.1-104.i386.rpm kdetoys3-3.1.2-5.i386.rpm kdeutils3-3.1.2-5.i386.rpm arts-1.1.2-4.i386.rpm qt3-3.1.2-37.i386.rpm libart_lgpl-2.3.10-97.i386.rpm qt3-non-mt-3.1.2-36.i386.rpm kdeartwork3-3.1.2-20.i386.rpm kdeaddons3-3.1.2-9.i386.rpm quanta-3.1.2-4.i386.rpm arts-1.1.2-4.i386.rpm kdegames3-3.1.2-3.i386.rpm

(quanta is optional ;))

-typed 'SuSEconfig'
-logged out of KDE (to restart)
-logged in again
-breathed a sigh of relief as it worked :-B

it doesnt work

linux:/home/seb/rpm # rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs
rpm: Es wurden keine Pakete für die Installation angegeben

rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs *.rpm

it doesnt work

linux:/home/abc/rpm # rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs
rpm: Es wurden keine Pakete für die Installation angegeben

euhm.. did you put the name of the package after "--replacepkgs" ? it seems necessary :)

negative- I get a whole list of prerequsite packages

by Giovanni (not verified)

I just wanna say:" Congratulations and thanks to all the KDE developers, testers and sponsors!"
Voglio solo dire: "Congratulazioni e grazie a tutti gli sviluppatori, i tester e gli sponsor di KDE!"
Giovanni

by Jarefri (not verified)

One feature I would love to see is a switch users feature similar to winxp and xandros.

by Uno Engborg (not verified)

I'm not familliar to windows XP or Xandros. But I guess that you want to be able to take over the machine and use your own standard user environment (as if you were logged in yourself) without having the first user to logout.

This is possible at least if you run Linux and XFree86, just start more Xservers and run kdm or xdm

E.g.

X :1 -query yourkdmserver vt08
X :2 -query yourkdmserver vt09
X :3 -query yourkdmserver vt10

etc...

To make them available every time you start Linux start them in your /etc/inittab file.

Then you can switch between the different logins by using
ctrl-alt F8
ctrl-alt F9
ctrl-alt F10

The default server is on ctrl-alt F7

This is also very useful if you have many different machines and want to switch between them quickly without logging out.

by Steve (not verified)

Note that changing virtual consoles is Linux-specific.

If you want to script changes, you should use the "chvt" command. Type the URL "man:chvt" into Konqueror for more info.

-- Steve

by Uno Engborg (not verified)

I think you can do it in FreeBSD too, I have not tested though

by And thank you f... (not verified)

Is this Suse specific?

I have in my K-Menu the entry "Start new session...", which indeed places a new login screen on vt08.

good luck
And

by nonamenobody (not verified)

Yes it is SuSE specific, it an automated way to do something similar to what Uno_Engborg suggested.

by Sheelu (not verified)

tell me about switch user in fedora linux

Not as slick as XP or Xandros...

But I do it in Mandrake 9.0 this way:
Ctrl-alt-F1
gets you a login.
Login the new user
% startx -- :1

That will launch your new x session...(and use 2, 3, 4 for subsequent ones. 0 is the one you started from)

Then use Ctrl-Alt-F7/F8/F9/F10 to rotate through the users, where F7=0, F8=1, etc etc.

Derek
cid at isoc dot net

Works on fedora as well... thanks

by EvilSmile (not verified)

w00t!
It's there.
It's all mine!!!!
mwuhaahaahaaa :D

Yeah, I'm going crazy. I've been waiting so long for this =].

Thanks a ton KDE team, you are the best.

ES

by Richard (not verified)

Does kwallet actually compile under any situation? If so, what are the prerequisites? The requirements page mentions nothing...