KDE.news 

KDE based distribution Kubuntu 6.06 LTS has been released. It is available for download now or for the first time you can order free Kubuntu CDs through Shipit. This release comes with KDE 3.5.2 (packages for 3.5.3 are available) and includes a new installer which you can use direct from the live desktop CD. The Desktop CD also includes some of the best KDE software available for Microsoft Windows including KOrganizer, Kexi and Scribus, use it to convert your friends to Freedom.

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest: KViewShell gets support for PostScript files. Work begins on Akonadi (the new KDE PIM data storage backend) and amaroK 2.0, with further optimisations to the stable amaroK version. kttsd (the kde-accessibility text-to-speech system) is ported to Phonon. KDELibs is now fully ported to D-BUS. Aesthetic improvements to KSysGuard.

Nokia has announced the release of the code to the web browser for their S60 phones. The browser is based on WebKit and KHTML. At Akademy last year the developers told us how they plan to be active Open Source contributors. It will be used on ESeries, NSeries devices and 3250 phones soon.

Though it was still rainy here at the Annahoeve in the Netherlands, the KDE 4 multimedia meeting was definitely up to speed. This article will report on the progress the hackers made yesterday, including the "why" and "what" of redesigning and speeding up amaroK, work on the KIO slaves and Phonon.

In the rainy Netherlands, eighteen KDE hackers have been working in the Annahoeve on Multimedia for the fourth incarnation of KDE. This report outlines the meeting topics, and the results of interesting presentations and explains how KDE developers outbid each others marshmallow records.

KDE is happy to announce the selection of 24 student applications for the Google Summer of Code 2006. This year, Google received a total of 6400 applications worldwide spread across 102 different Open Source organisations. "It looks like we've got some very interesting projects for KDE as a whole, and a good number of projects for KOffice", said Boudewijn Rempt, the maintainer for Krita, celebrating the selection of 4 KOffice student proposals. "We spent over 3 hours debating the final list of projects on Sunday evening, but we're confident our selection is solid", commented Cornelius Schumacher, the KDE e.V. vice-president who will act as a mentor for one of the 3 KDE PIM projects. The list is completed by 3 KDevelop projects, 2 Kopete ones, one for KHTML/KJS and 11 others in various areas of KDE.

The KOffice team today released the first bug-fix release in their 1.5 series. Critical bugs in KSpread, KWord and Krita were fixed, thanks to the helpful input of our users. We also have updated languages packs. You can read more about it in the press release and the full announcement. A full changelog is also available. Currently, you can download binary packages for Kubuntu and SUSE.

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest: Huge optimisations in ksysguard. Solid switches to CMake. aRts, KPDF removed in trunk/, whilst oKular continues to be developed as its replacement. amaroK gets support for Creative Zen devices. coreapps/ module created (as proposed on kde-core-devel). More work on supporting Intel compilers.

The KDE e.V.'s first Quarterly Report for 2006 has been published. Those reports are used by the KDE e.V. to report its activities to the public. The highlights in this report include updates from the Working Groups, a report from the last KDE e.V. board meeting and a couple of other updates. The Technical Working Group for example announced a planned technical preview of KDE 4, the Human-Computer Interaction Working Group informs about progress in developing plans for usability, accessibility and artwork for KDE 4. The Marketing Working Group gives updates about the status of the promotional community around KDE 4 and different other aspects regarding marketing-related efforts.

"It's the first time I feel good when thinking about syncing," said Cornelius, one of the OpenSync developers. This interview intends to give you some insight into OpenSync, the upcoming free unified synching solution for the free desktop. Arne interviews the developers from OpenSync and KDE PIM, Cornelius Schumacher, Armin Bauer and Tobias Koenig.