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In the latest issue of KDE-CVS-Digest, read about new Kontact plugins for summary, notes and the newsticker, KOffice gains improved import and export filters plus template loading from the command line, we also see an improvement in speed for Konqueror file and image viewing, and Dr Konqi gets hooked into KDevelop for debugging. Also, improvements to KDE Print, KGhostview, user interface cleanups, and numerous bug fixes.

In this entertaining review, Savanna takes us through her discovery of JuK, a new pearl in the treasure trove of KDE applications. Expect to see JuK ship with KDE 3.2 since it has already made an appearance in the KDE Multimedia module. Kudos to Savanna for taking the time to contribute the review and, of course, hats off to the developers of JuK!

For those of you who have been anxious: You can now register for the Nove Hrady conference ("Kastle"). The Kastle info pages have been updated to contain more details about arrival, departure and accommodation. Remember that places are limited, so better hurry! Active contributors do of course have precedence. Companies that would like to send employees to the event to learn about KDE development firsthand can find information here. Don't let this opportunity pass you by!

The ContentPeople are currently featuring a review of Quanta Plus by Jono Bacon. "Quanta manages to balance a full array of features, without useless bloat. I found very few features within the environment that I didn't use regularly. To me, this is evidence of how careful the developers are to keep Quanta Plus lean, rather than flashy. " As you may recall we recently featured an interview with the folk behind Quanta. Quanta is the kind of application that makes KDE look good, so keep those donations coming.

KDE Traffic #54 has been released. KOffice updates abound, as well as an update on the continuing saga of Ellis Whitehead. I wonder if penguins make good wives. Anyway, get it at the usual place.

KDE enthusiast Siddhu Warrier has kindly contributed a write-up of his experiences with setting up a Samba server using Linux and KDE. For those of you who don't know what Samba is, the bottom line is that with a little black magic, you can conveniently access files, directories and printers on a Linux machine from a Windows machine and vice-versa all over the network. Intrigued? Pull up your sleeves and check out the article. Thank you, Siddhu, and to the rest of you: caveat emptor!

It is with sorrow that I have to inform you of the death of Alan Eldridge this weekend. Alan, or 'alane' as he was known within the Open Source community, was a core member of the team which packages KDE for FreeBSD, and a respected member of the Open Source community outside of KDE.

Kontact, the <a href="KDE personal information management application evolves from day to day. The integration of KMail, KOrganizer, KAddressBook and KNotes is nearly finished now and over the weekend the summary view -- which can display current weather information and upcoming events such as birthdays -- was added. It is planned to get the groupware functionality working in time for the LinuxTag in Karlsruhe and present a replacement for Outlook/Exchange. If you are interested in current screenshots, take a look here. I would like to personally thank all the KDE PIM developers, especially those who worked so hard on the new summary view!

Helio Chissini de Castro of Conectiva recently gave a KDE speech at Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and was kind enough to write up his experiences for the rest of us. In recent years, Rio Grande do Sul has become a GNU and consequently GNOME stronghold, so prepare yourself for an entertaining if not graphic read! Update: 06/13 20:20 by N: Only fair to point out Miguel's comments on this article.

This week in KDE-CVS-Digest: Improvements and bugfixes to the new tab code used in Konqueror and now Quanta Plus, numerous usability enhancements in KMail including easier keyboard shortcut editing and flickering toolbars fixed, KDE Print gets a new PPD parser, KStars hardware interface is extended, and more. Enjoy.