KDE 3.2 Released

Today the KDE Project released KDE 3.2. It is the result of a combined year-long effort by hundreds of individuals and corporations from around the globe. For packages, please visit the KDE 3.2 info page. At the moment binary packages for Conectiva Linux, Slackware (9.0, 9.1) and SUSE Linux (8.2, 9.0) are listed. Or compile the source either manually or with the help of Konstruct after reading the KDE 3.2 Requirements list. All changes can be found in the detailed KDE 3.2 change log or continue to read about the highlights.

Some of the highlights in KDE 3.2 at a glance:

  • Increased performance and standards compliance
    • Lowered start up times for applications and hundreds of optimizations
      make KDE 3.2 the fastest KDE ever!
    • Working in concert with Apple Computer Inc.'s Safari web browser team,
      KDE's web support has seen huge performance boosts as well as increased
      compliance with widely accepted web standards
    • Increased support for FreeDesktop.org standards in KDE 3.2 strengthens
      interoperability with other Linux and UNIX software.
  • New applications
    • JuK: a jukebox-style music player
    • Kopete: an instant messenger with support for AOL Instant Messenger,
      MSN, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, IRC, SMS and WinPopup
    • KWallet: providing integrated, secure storage of passwords and web form
      data
    • Kontact: a unified interface that draws KDE's email, calendaring,
      address book, notes and other PIM features together into a familiar
      configuration
    • KGpg: providing an easy-to-use KDE interface to industry-standard
      encryption tools
    • KIG: an interactive geometry program
    • KSVG: a viewer for SVG files
    • KMag, KMouseTool and KMouth: accessibility tools for KDE
    • KGoldRunner: a new riff on a classic game
    • ... and many more!
  • Thousands of incremental improvements and bug fixes
    • During the development of KDE 3.2 nearly 10,000 bug reports were
      processed via the KDE Bug Tracking System
    • Approximately 2,000 feature requests were also processed, with hundreds
      of requested features added to KDE applications and components
    • An improved configuration system that opens the door to new
      installation management possibilities, improved roaming support and
      many improvements to the "KDE Kiosk" environment management system
    • Inline spell checking for web forms and emails
    • Improved email and calendaring support
    • Powerful tabbed interface for the Konqueror file manager and web
      browser
    • Support for Microsoft Windows desktop sharing protocol (RDP)
  • Improved Usability
    • Reduced clutter in many menus and toolbars
    • Many applications, dialogs and control panels reworked for clarity and
      utility
  • Enhanced appearance
    • Plastik, a tastefully understated new look, debuts in KDE 3.2
    • Hundreds of new icons improve the consistency and beauty of KDE
    • Tweaks to the default look including new splash screens, (optionally)
      animated progress bars, styled panels and more!
  • New Tools for Software Developers
    • Comprehensive API documentation extended for 3.2
    • Language bindings for ECMAScript (aka Javascript), Python, Java and
      Ruby
    • New versions of the powerful KDevelop IDE and Quanta web development
      suite
    • Umbrello brings UML modeling for 11 different languages including C++,
      Java, SQL, PHP, Python and Perl to KDE

More information and why you should use KDE 3.2 can be found in the KDE 3.2 announcement.

Dot Categories: 

Comments

by Cirrus (not verified)

I've done almost everything:(
I removed and reinstalled almost everything, at i noticed that the problem with X eating up all the cpu occurs only when I have the xfonts-75dpi package installed. Upon remove the package everything was running smoothly. After that I tried to install some truetype fonts, but the same problem was happening. What exactly is going on here?

by AC (not verified)

Run fc-cache as root maybe?

by espakm (not verified)

Thanks!!!

I also had the same problem: kdeinit used more than 90% CPU time. KDE was almost unusable.

After fc-cache it runs smoothly, much faster than 3.1.5.

by PV (not verified)

I tried to instal at home (Pentium IV, 2Ghz 1Gb, same SuSE 8.2), and it works flawlesly and extremly fast.

PV

by Marc J. Driftmeyer (not verified)

Having Debian KDE 3.2 CVS I can tell you that when you upgrade don't be surprised to note that not all the necessary parts of the packages actually get installed. I did a dpkg -i --force-all on kdebase and kdelibs amongst other packages and low and behold there were some parts that didn't install until I forced it to install.

The system runs smoother. However when I do put 3.2 release I'm going to do a Dselect purge after I relocate .kde to tmp directory, than restore some of my personal preferences back.

KDE doesn't seem to just "smoothly upgrade." (I hold the maintainer more responsible on this than the dev teams)

That is definitely a no no if they want it to be an "out-of-the-box" consumer experience.

The scripts don't always do what they're supposed to do.

Apt-get behaves a bit differently than dpkg as well.

And if there are any fixed dependencies (packageA=3.2-...) expect some future headaches, instead of the expected (packageA>=3.2-...) approach when it's time to do smooth and gradual updates to the base and addons.

Qt is also in-flux as well. I'd imagine once Qt3.3 is out of beta and full release any extraneous annoyances that popped up in 3.2.x will be less frequent.

by Dominic (not verified)

Check if /dev/shm is enabled in fstab. It will improve speed of X if you use it.

Did you associate localhost and your machine name with 127.0.0.1 in /etc/hosts? I had a problem with KDE being very slow in the past and I corrected it by adding these two lines in this file.

by ivo_bg (not verified)

Hi PV,

I have the same exact problem as you have.

"When I launch an app, it takes 15-20 sec and X takes 90% of CPU.." - yeep, absolutely the same :). Otherwise it works fine...

I read your post @21:48 and you said that "it works flawlesly and extremly fast" on a different hardware configuration, so is that a some strange incompatibility problem with some hardware (i.e. some video cards)?

My box is: Celeron 900 MHz, S3 Savage 8 MB Video on Debian GNU/Linux(Sid), XServer 4.2.1, kernel 2.4.23

Any ideas ?

by PV (not verified)

My card at work (slow kde 3.2) :nVidia Quadro4 900XGL
at home (fast kde3.2): nVidia GeForce 4 400MX

same Xfree :
XFree86 Version 4.3.0
Release Date: 27 February 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
Build Operating System: SuSE Linux [ELF] SuSE
-------------------------------

Kernel at work: 2.4.20-64GB-SMP
at home: should be the same..

PV

by Tukla Ratte (not verified)

I get 30% - 50% better performance on my 400 MHz Pentium, 128 MB RAM system under SuSE 8.2 using the upgrade packages.

Wanna trade computers?

by brockers (not verified)

A big thanks to all the KDE developers, supporters, translators, etc.. Great work guys. We really appreciate it.

brockers

by Wheaty (not verified)

I've been using 3.2 RC1 (and more recently 3.2 final, grabbed it off CVS yesterday), and I must say that the difference between Konq in 3.1 and 3.2 is like night and day. I have even come across sites that Konq renders perfectly, and FIREBIRD fails!

The second highlight for me is the new and improved Kate editor. It is without a doubt the best GUI text editor I have ever used on any platform. Simple, lightweight, fast, and has project/folding/highlighting support.

If it weren't for my reliance on Photoshop for my digital darkroom, I would most certainly make Linux and KDE 3.2 the default on my main box. I eagerly await Gimp 2.2 (maybe KDE 3.3/4 will be out by then? ;)

by Someone (not verified)

Photoshop actually runs under Crossover Office, might be worth a try out. http://www.codeweavers.com/site/compatibility/browse/name?app_id=8
Versions 5,6,7 all 3 get a silver rating. I don't know what bugs might still exist. But it may be worth it.

by Mark Dufour (not verified)

it seems to run under regular wine as well. here are the instructions for a specific version:
http://frankscorner.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&...
there are probably some minor bugs though using regular wine, not present in the crossover version. disney actually paid crossover to support photoshop: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1210083,00.asp

by Kid (not verified)

Hi,

where I can change the shading of workplace text under icons??
It's look realy bad on my notebook. I can't read the text.

Thanks.

by Spy Hunter (not verified)

That is very strange, since the shadows were designed to *improve* the readability of the text in all cases. Could you post a screenshot of your problem?

To turn off the shadows, right-click the desktop, choose "Configure Desktop", go to the "background" panel, click "Advanced Options", and uncheck "Enable Shadow".

by Caleb Tennis (not verified)

Deja Vu. I swear I just read this question (and answer) about 3 screens up.

:)

by Dominic Chambers (not verified)

Well done everyone! I have seen how much work went into this, and it is really very humbling. The breadth and depth of the K Desktop is simply astounding; just KDevelop alone is a tech powerhouse.

There are probably less than five companies in the world that could get something like this out of the door. That it is a largely volunteer effort is a true sign of the strength of open source, and the KDE community.

Respect to everyone involved.

by Richard Jones (not verified)

Yes, this is the same old question ;)

Does anyone know anything about (non-cooker) Mandrake packages for KDE 3.2?

by J. Andersen (not verified)

I think we are out of luck. Look here ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/3.2/
everybody but Mandrake :-(
Maybe its time to switch distro - they did the same late thing with 3.1x

by repito (not verified)

Bummer. I really want to be running 3.2 but a source compile on my laptop would take forever. Anyone want to step up to the plate and put up Mandrake rpms, please? :/

by Matt (not verified)

folks! Mandrake 10beta is out and it includes KDE 3.2pre and the new 2.6 kernel!

I'm waiting for the Mandrake 10 community edition which should be out by the end of the month! It will run kde 3.2final out of the box. I've been considering trying the new kernel and the new KDE but since I am wary of breaking my 9.2 install, I'm going to wait a couple of weeks and give Mandrake 10 a try. http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/100beta.php3 is the site for the beta. Normally I don't upgrade often, but this seems worth it, speaking of reinstalling distros, what is it with people that switch distros completely every two weeks when a new feature/program is released instead of a) learning to compile from source or b) waiting for a package to be created for the desired product? Are these the same people that reinstall windows every month instead of running scandisk and defrag?

by JC (not verified)

lol they want also the xfree-4.4 RC ? Btw the 2.6 kernel is not stable enough.
Well it's one more MDK edition that will be again totally unstable.

by wygiwyg (not verified)

LOL?

I'm running current Cooker and it is not unstable. I don't experience crushes, XFree 4.4 RC is stable enough, and for your information kernel in Cooker is 2.6.2.

And BTW, kde 3.2 runs perfectly here.

by J. Andersen (not verified)

I just want Mandrake to be up-to-date when major updates arrive. It seems to me that other distros manage to do this very soon after the releases. If Mandrake released some update plan like "14 february KDE 3.2 packages will be available for users of Mandrake 9.2 , 9.1.. whatever" i would wait without complaining. They just seem to concentrate on the next release and forget users of the actual distro. Its frustrating - even MS does this better with their SP's.

Cheers
A still Mandrake user

by Sahin (not verified)

Hi,

I insatlled KDE 3.2 on woody. Overall KDE 3.2 is very nice desktop with great new features. Yes, there are bugs... For example Kontroll Center sometimes going crazy and start kdeinit which eats the CPU.

However the fonts are ugly in konsole on woody. I try to setup a nice fixed fonts for it (Kosnole -> Settings -> Font -> Custom), but I can't. All of them are ugly. I don't know why only few fonts available on the custom font menu. In kde3.1.4 I've so many fonts in the custom selections, and the fonts looks great. :-(

Any idea?

Sahin

by Ulf (not verified)

Hi Sahin,

I have the same problem, too.
If I go to
Controlcenter->System->Fonts (or similiar, using other localization),
there I can see many, many fonts as root.
But all those ending with pcf.gz seems not working. No Preview available.
Have you already solved the problem?
Any idea what's going on?

by James Richard Tyrer (not verified)

Konsole uses only fixed width fonts.

Which fixes width fonts do you have installed?

--
JRT

by Fenris Ulf (not verified)

Does woody use fontconfig?

To solve this problem on unstable, you would make sure you have bitmapped fonts installed (xfonts-base, xfonts-75dpi/xfonts-100dpi), and then dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig and select "Enable bitmapped fonts".

Maybe this is applicable to Woody.

by rahul sundaram (not verified)

Hi

If anyone is looking for fedora rpms get them here

ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/3...

189 mb total

regards
rahul sundaram

by Anonymous (not verified)

Are this fedora core 1 or rawhide (developement) version?

by rahul sundaram (not verified)

Hi

these are fc1 rpms

by Asokan K (not verified)

Are these packages compiled with mp3 and xine support ?
Or without them as in official Fedora packages ?

B/W will there be packages by KDE-RedHat team ?
I have been using their packages for long and very very
satisfied with them.

thanks

Asok

by Rex Dieter (not verified)

I doubt redhat's packages on kde.org include mpe/xine support.

KDE-RedHat (http://kde-redhat.sf.net/) packages should be arriving in the next day or two. Stay tuned.

-- Rex

by Asokan K (not verified)

Wow.. A Big thanks to KDE-RedHat

--Asok

by Entirer (not verified)

when you start konsole and look with w who is logged in, you see two users.
if you start more konsoles you will see more users.
whatis wrong with this version of kde (kde 3.2 stable)???
where were no such bug in 3.2RC1

by ivansanchez@esc... (not verified)

That behavior was in Unices since xterms appeared (and that's a long, long time ago). Every virtual terminal (let it be xterm, eterm, gterm or konsole) will be attached to a /dev/pts* virtual device. Thus, every time you launch a konsole, you create a new virtual device /dev/pts*, and run a getty and a bash on it, effectively increasing the times you're logged into the system.

Time to say "it's not a bug, it's a feature"...

by Greg Fortune (not verified)

That's not quite true. konsole, xterm, eterm, gterm, etc don't cause a new user to be "logged in" when they start up. They simply fork another bash shell. getty is only involved on the virtual terminals available at Alt-F1, Alt-F2, etc.

I don't have KDE3.2 final installed yet (emerge kde is running right now ), but konsole should *not* cause additional logins.

Below is a snapshot of my system under 3.2RC1 that shows konsole doesn't behave in the way you described.

gfortune@inviso done $ ps -Af | grep "konsole";who
gfortune 25707 10219 0 Jan25 ? 00:02:54 kdeinit: konsole
gfortune 27248 10219 0 Jan26 ? 00:00:05 kdeinit: konsole
gfortune 1582 10219 0 Feb03 ? 00:00:07 kdeinit: konsole
gfortune 3681 10219 0 Feb03 ? 00:00:03 kdeinit: konsole
gfortune 5954 10219 0 11:34 ? 00:00:02 kdeinit: konsole
gfortune 20098 10219 0 13:02 ? 00:00:10 kdeinit: konsole
gfortune 21049 25720 0 19:36 pts/6 00:00:00 grep konsole
root vc/1 Jan 23 12:25
gfortune vc/2 Jan 23 12:25
root vc/3 Jan 24 17:42
gfortune vc/4 Jan 24 17:44

the konsole behaviour depends on how 'utempter' is installed i believe ... (i'm not sure if the program name is right). If you don't like that behaviour, just remove the setuid flag from it

by Pat (not verified)

it's still not there :(

by irda (not verified)

Does the kde3.2 remote-control functionality depend on lirc, or does it
work by directly accessing the serial port?

by anonymous (not verified)

AFAIK it's a kde frontend to lirc.

by Namaseit (not verified)

Let there be KDE!

mmmmmm can't wait for slackware pkg's

by JC (not verified)

Read the announcement
they are already in /contrib

by Evan "JabberWok... (not verified)

In an attempt to start a postive thread, here's a nifty question for everybody:

Why (specifically) are you installing 3.2?

For myself, the answer is disconnected IMAP. I often work at a diner with no bandwidth so that I can code without distractions. They know me there, and give me an outlet and loads of coffee. The one thing I'd like to take with me is my email. The other reason is that I'm on a fairly slow laptop (300Mhz, but it runs MySQL and Apache as well as KDE), so any speed increases are welcome.

I'm curious as to what feature of 3.2 is making everybody so excited about this release. I'd imagine it's different for everybody.

--
Evan

by Derek Kite (not verified)

Konqueror. The web browser works for me, as a file manager it is quick enough to be useful. Quanta is almost always open.

Derek

by Stewart (not verified)

Because as a gentooer when I type 'emerge -UD world' that's what it does. And I feel guilty if I don't do that once in a while (after an emerge system of course.)

I'm annoyed that it seems like only a couple of weeks ago that my puter spent goodness knows how long building 3.1.x Now here in the S hemishphere where its summer all that extra processor heat is not very helpful.

Seriously though I'm keen to check out that UML stuff.

by Sean O'Dell (not verified)

For me, while 3.1 was a terrific release, and good enough to get me off Windows permanently, there are still little things here and there that mildly annoy me. They're too small to bother enumerating, but I do hope 3.2 takes some of them away.

by - (not verified)

Konqueror.

by SorinM (not verified)

various small features:

1. Vertical selection in konsole.
2. Minitools in konqueror (I keep my bookmarks in a php program that has the posibility to insert bookmarks directly using a minitool).
3. Code folding for perl in Kate (at least!!!)
4. Kwallet (very useful for someone like me who has a lor of accounts on a lot of websites)
5. Kontact (drag-and-drop from mail to todo's and stuff like that)
6. Konqueror's tabs much better handled.

to name a few

by Alex (not verified)

This is a huge step forward for Linux on the desktop.

In fact, with this release it is a good time to donate, like all OSS projects KDE is in need of money and any contributions, they really should advertise this more.