KDE Project Releases KDE 2.2alpha1

For those of you who like the cutting edge or want to help the KDE developers continue their phenomenal development pace, but aren't yet ready to compile from CVS,
the KDE Project has just released
KDE 2.2alpha1. A list of some of the significant additions and improvements
versus the recent 2.1 release is below (please add any
unlisted significant changes in the comments section), as well as a list of currently available
pre-compiled binaries (please read the KDE Binary
Packages Policy
). Please bear in mind that this is an alpha release and those enjoying a stable desktop should use KDE 2.1.1.

 

ChangeLog: KDE Alpha 2.2.1

If you know of any significant changes not listed below, please add them
in a comment!

  • kdelibs changes.
    • One major change you will notice right away is from KDE's new modular printing subsystem based on the new KPrinter class (dot story; KCKDE Issue 5, 4 and 1 ). It is compatible with the existing QPrinter class and also features a new printer management tool.
      Its plugin design currently supports lpr, CUPS and PDQ.
    • Konqueror also benefits from the new HTML form completion added to KHTML, which allows Konqueror to supply possible completions to text fields in web forms via a drop down menu, very similar to how it does with URLs in the location bar (KCKDE Issue 2).
    • Of interest to developers, KDE-DB, a modular database-connectivity class, has been added to kdelibs (KCKDE Issue 5). The MySQL plugin is the
      most complete, but also the PostgresSQL one works.
    • KDE's font selection dialog has received a facelift: it is now possible to
      preview fonts in dialogs using the KFontAction class (KCKDE Issue 3).
  • New applications. Kaboodle, a quick multimedia viewer/player, has
    been added to kdemultimedia (KCKDE Issue 5). It complements noatun but is intended for use as a KPart (e.g., to preview a video in Konqueror). KScan, a library to access raster scanners using SANE, as well as Kooka (dot
    story), a front-end for KScan, have
    been added to kdemultimedia (KCKDE Issue 2).
  • KMail. The KMail developers have implemented the oft-requested IMAP support (KCKDE Issue 4). In addition, KMail features improved (non-blocking) sending (KCKDE Issue 5).
  • Theming. Theming has gotten a big boost with support for both Windows themes from Tucows and pixmap-based IceWM themes and the addition of a Quartz Style (KCKDE Issue 4).
  • Networking.
    • Caldera has contributed a new smb kioslave which works with libsmbclient, released by the Samba team.
    • KDE now supports SOCKS (a generic utility which re-implements a number of libc functions) (KCKDE Issue 3).
    • KDE now supports IPv6 (tested on Linux, AIX, Tru64 4.x and Solaris 2.6 and 7) (KCKDE Issue 2).
  • Desktop. For the desktop, KDE 2.2 adds the new audiocd:/ ioslave,
    which, for example, permits you to drag'n'drop audio CD tracks onto your desktop using Konqueror and have them automatically be encoded as .MP3 or Ogg Vorbis (dot story; KCKDE Issue 2).
  • Administrivia. On the less ambitious side, Kant has been renamed as Kate (KCKDE Issue 5).

 

Packages: KDE Alpha 2.2.1
More packages may be released in the coming days (in particular Mandrake is said to still be working on their binaries), please read the KDE Binary Packages Policy.

Dot Categories: 

Comments

by steve_qui (not verified)

what about k-installer?

are there any plans to include it in kde 2.2?

is there any progress on this module?

by Aaron J. Seigo (not verified)

I don't think it will be in KDE2.2 itself, however it could very well be ready for use by then. It is still in the kdenonbeta cvs module but is being actively developed and progressing nicely. You can check out the progress at Nick's site: http://rox0rs.net/kdeinstaller

by steve_qui (not verified)

we need krayon....

is it in kde 2.2 final?

who knows something?

It _might_ be in KOffice 1.1, which is a seperate release from KDE 2.2.

There is something like koffice-1.1beta on the KDE-servers, too...

by t0m_dR (not verified)

>For the desktop, KDE 2.2 adds the new audiocd:/ ioslave, which, for example, permits you to drag'n'drop audio CD tracks onto your desktop using Konqueror

what would be cool, is for people to be able to burn CD's from konqueror, I've heard M$ Explorer on XP will be able to do it...

by Christian Parpart (not verified)

But this feature should be included into the kernel fs. It has nothing to do with KDE.

by t0m_dR (not verified)

I'm not talking about CDRW support (treating cd's as floppies!) I'm talking about plain old Cd recording, and using KONQUEROR as a front end for cd burning programs

by Bojan (not verified)

I've read once that this is one of the goals Konqueror is aiming for, but unfortunately don't remember the link or the details. I think it was said that Konqueror will eventually be able to burn a CD using KreateCD or something else.

This would be good.

I'd like it to be taken a step further though. What about when encoding the CD's ID into the comment field in the id3 tag?

Then when burning mp3/oggs back onto audio CD, if all the tracks have the same ID, the ID is burnt back onto the correct place on the CD, so that anyone playing the CD back can query an online DB for the correct track names.

Even better if the burner could burn the audio ID and place the tracks in the correct place by using the track number.

Hope i'm explaining this well. :-)

by compile lazy (not verified)

Hi,
id there someone nice outther who is willing to
provide a binary rpm from Kate for Mandrake8?
This is a program which has undergone dramatic
development since 2.1.1 and it would be really nice, if I wouldnt have to comlile everything.

I think this could be possible

by A Sad Person (not verified)

It's possible to build Kate from CVS sources using KDE2.1.1 libraries...

Get the kdebase module, do make -f Makefile.cvs, ./configure --prefix=/usr, then go into the kate directory, and edit the Makefile's to remove -lkdeprint (or such), and replace all references to KPrint in the sources with QPrint...

by Weevil (not verified)

With over 683 posts in the bugs database regarding the Konqueror 'process for the http://www.foo.bar protocol died unexpectedly' error (which I'm told arises from a problem with kio_http), can the people who are experiencing this problem right up to KDE 2.1.1 release (like ME) be reassured that it's fixed in this new version?

Thanks...

by Bojan (not verified)

Yes, that bug is quite annoying. Anyone knows about this being fixed??

by Bojan (not verified)

Yes, that bug is quite annoying. Anyone knows about this being fixed??

by ferdinand gassauer (not verified)

Hmm!
I found 8 matches in the bugs database searching for
"protocol and died and unexpectedly not done".

Most of these bugs can't be reproduced any more with the current CVS. One site crashes Netscape too (cyrilic encoding?).
ferdinand

by Waldo Bastian (not verified)

Yes, this is supposed to be fixed in 2.2 as well as in KDE 2.1.2, which we hope to release soon.

The problem happened on relative slow connections
when the webserver closed the connection while we
were trying to write to it.

Cheers,
Waldo

by Bakiller (not verified)

When is this kde 2.1.2 going to be coming out?? I havent heard anything about there being a 2.1.2 release befor reading this! Thats cool!

2.1.2?
I did not receive any comment on the
10 bug reports I reported lately. So I do hope
it will not be released to quickly!

AC

by Henri (not verified)

I really hope so, this _very_ annoying bug prevents me using konqueror... However I don't really have a slow connection (cable modem) and this messages appears frequently (it works on the 4th or 5th try) and the message appears immediately after pressing Enter.

by Daniel Mandler (not verified)

It happens at fast connections, too.
If you use ISDN with autoconnect-mode it happens always if isdn chanceld the connection.

AFAIK, 2.1.2 has been released already
There's an announcement on
www.kde.org

You are a troll, trolling helps no-one, if it's in the bug database people know about it.

by pasha (not verified)

AFAIK, Kpilot (KDEPIM package) will now include the long-awaited adressbook conduit.

by Andre (not verified)

Wow, this is cool. Hopefully it got a import filter for vcards too. Few code with this intention was lying around for some time on the KDE server, but never get implemented I guess.

by tjodleiv (not verified)

Theming. Theming has gotten a big boost with support for both Windows themes from Tucows and pixmap-based IceWM themes and the addition of a Quartz Style (KCKDE Issue 4).

I have compiled KDE 2.2alpha from source, but this theming thing do not show up in kcontroll, or anywhere else. Nor can i find any information on where to uncompress my icewm themes.

Where is it?.
Is there something I have missed (configure options?).

by themelover (not verified)

Same here.
Where is the place you untar icewm files ?.
How do you enable them ?.

by Titlebar (not verified)

In Kcontrol > Look and feel > Window decorations.

by Titlebar (not verified)

yeah, I forgot to tell you :), you have to gunzip and untar IceWM themes to /.kde/share/apps/kwin/icewm-themes directory.
In Kcontrol > Look and feel > Window decorations you have to choose IceWM window decoration and then click on tab Configure and there you can choose your IceWM themes.
Enjoy ;)

by gallium (not verified)

Hi,

I'm the author of the IceWM kwin client. It is unfortunate that the IceWM client did not make it into the kde 2.2 alpha1, but it will be in 2.2 beta 1. Its currently in the KDE CVS repository HEAD branch. There is also an associated kcontrol module to modify button positions, and set icewm themes. Quartz and modernsystem can now modify their button positions too via this new kcontrol module.

See http://gallium.n3.net/ for a preview of KWin-IceWM in action.

Enjoy!

by Evandro (not verified)

is it possible to compile the icewm client with kde 2.1.1?

by Timothy R. Butler (not verified)

I have a HOW-TO I created about using the IceWM style in KDE 2.1.x at http://www.uninetsolutions.com/tbutler/linux/001.html .
I hope you find this helpful.

HTH,
Tim

by ac (not verified)

Yes it is, just get a resent snapshot of kdebase, then you just compile kcontroll and kwin. Start kde and go to kontrolsenter, under look and feel you will see it. Choose the icewm decorations and it will be enabled.

It works great.

by Henry Stanaland (not verified)

Actually, what I would like to see is all Gnome & KDE applications to look the same. I know KDE will currently force Gnome apps to use the same color, but it still uses that butt ugly default gnome theme.

What I am talking about is, that Gnome & KDE use the same color, theme, fonts, etc.

Hopefully when motif adds support for Gnome & KDE, atleast those apps will look the same. And it would be cool if Qt apps would use KDE themes.

So I'm just saying I want some consistency!

by ac (not verified)

Sharing a common theme engine was talked about during GUADEC. Also ACS Motif can know use Gtk themes. What would be cool is a common base like Xt, then a shared component model(plus shared themes), that way Gtk and Qt could be mixed eisly, and there could be KDE bindings to Gtk and GNOME bindings to Qt

by Frank (not verified)

What's with the import-tool for NetscapeMail-folders into KMail?

by Daniel Molkentin (not verified)

"K" Menu => Utilities => KMail Import

The binary is called "kmailcvt"

HTH,

Daniel

by Frank (not verified)

But it's NOT for NetscapeMail-Folders! Only for the addressbook, right?

by Vajvarana (not verified)

AFAIK Netscapemail uses exactly the same mailbox format of KMail... I don't think there is a need for an importing tool!

by Frank (not verified)

I'm surprised. It doesn't work here. How Do I import the Folders?

Theming.

This is going in the wrong way. Why do you people need those themes so much. HiColor Default is very good all by itself. What would really be ok, is a title like this: "All KDE apps start 40% faster!" now __THIS__ would be ok. Screw themes, speed is what matters!

by themelover (not verified)

Some of us would like to use themes, if you dont want to us them no one will force you.

by Daniel Molkentin (not verified)

Hmm. I just wonder why I see more and more KDE coder using gprof. Must be about speed improvement, no? ;)

don't get me wrong. i don't have anything against themeing, i just think that developers are more concentrated on kde looking great, not performance. take m$ for example: (i hate them) windows looks ok, kde looks much much better, BUT, explorer takes half a second to start on my celeron 333 with 64 megs o' ram, konqueror take about 3-4 seconds, if not more. i think that kde has reached a high enough state of GUI look, and developers should concentrate more on performance

by The Dude (not verified)

yeah well M$ loads Explorer into memory at start up so it is just a matter of drawing the window. and since explorer and IE are the same thing now both load quickly.

by not me (not verified)

Whatever M$ does to make Explorer go faster, I LIKE it! I wish KDE had that ability too. I really like Konqueror, but the fact that it takes 10-15X as long as IE/Explorer to start up is annoying. Even opening a new window of an existing instance of Konqueror takes *much* longer than starting IE.

Is there anything that could be done? Preloading Konqueror would be a *good* thing, in my opinion, as long as it could be turned off in the Control panel for people who don't like that sort of thing. Even if it used 5-10 more MB of memory, I'd still like the feature to be there.

by Brent Cook (not verified)

I don't know where I read it, but I believe that the reason Konqueror does not load automatically is that it wastes memory to keep everything loaded always in the background. This is something that users of KDE 1 protested strongly. Check old issues of the KC or browse the mailing list for discussions of the design of KDE 2 with these regards (I'm not saying that KDE 2 is lightweight, just that it's not as heavy as it might be).

For the most part, bits are only loaded when needed. Even konqueror for me seems to load the HTML renderer only when viewing a web page (start it as the file manager and type a URL to a web page to see what I mean). That's the price you pay for the modularity that has meant rapid development and clean/flexible design for KDE.

The most simple solution to the speed problem is for you to start Konqueror and not close it. It takes much less time to spawn a new window than to restart Konqueror from scratch. If it gets in your way, just send it to another virtual desktop.

by not me (not verified)

I know that pre-loading Konqueror takes more memory. My point is, I am willing to give up 5-10 MB of memory to have a much faster-starting Konqueror. I would like to have the option of pre-loading Konqueror and KHTML into memory so that whenever I need them, they will pop up immediately. M$ knows the benefits of this and that is why they do it in Windows (despite popular opinion to the contrary, they are pretty smart).

Starting Konqueror and leaving it somewhere helps a little, but as I said, even opening an new window of an existing instance of Konqueror takes noticably more time than "starting" IE in Windows. I think this could be improved.

by Antialias (not verified)

You can always preload Konqueror by putting shortcut to Konqueror to Autostart folder (Konqueror will be automatically loaded every time you start kde), or not closing Konqueror when you log out and check Save session.

by Ddread (not verified)

Hmmm... 'by putting shortcut...' ...
ALLO KDE People ! open yuor eyes !
I installed today the new 8.0 LinuxMandrake distribution, and then created 2 users, the first under a KDE session, the second over a GNOME session...:

Results where Gnome desktop environement loads 3/4 times faster.

I know the solution is to use Gnome, :) but I do love the Konqueror !