KDE 4

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This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future software. The content may change dramatically as the software release approaches and more information becomes available.

KDE 4 is the next major release of the K Desktop Environment software. A release date has been scheduled for the 23rd October 2007.[1].

KDE 4 will include major backend updates, including a port to Qt 4, which will result in an expected 20–30% performance increase.^[1] It will contain a new multimedia API, called Phonon, a device integration framework called Solid and a new style guide and default icon set called Oxygen. It will also include the new desktop and panel user interface tool, called Plasma, which will also include support for desktop widgets, similar to SuperKaramba or Apple's Dashboard widgets. The port to Qt 4 will facilitate support for non-X11-based platforms, including Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Contents 1 Release Date 2 References 2.1 Cited references and notes 3 External links

[edit] Release Date

On March 21st, 2007 the KDE team posted on their blog a release date for KDE 4.

• April 1, 2007: Subsystem Freeze

From this date forward, no new KDE subsystem or major changes can be committed to kdelibs.

• May 1, 2007: Alpha Release + kdelibs soft API Freeze

Alpha will be a source-only release without translations. The kdelibs API is "soft-frozen", meaning that changes can be made but only with the consent of the core developers.

• June 1, 2007: trunk/KDE is feature frozen

Trunk is frozen for feature commits. Internationalised string changes are allowed. A list of main modules that will be included in the final release will be made.

• June 25, 2007: Beta1

Beta 1 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity. After this release, a new Beta version will be released every month.

• September 23, 2007: Total Release Freeze

This is the very last date for committing anything that isn't reviewed on the development lists.

• September 25, 2007: Release Candidate 1

Targetted date for first release candidate. Only regressions (breakage caused by the KDE 4 port) or grave bugs can be fixed. Starting with this Release Candidate, a new Release Candidate will be put out every two weeks until the codebase is sufficiently stable and all showstopper bugs have been fixed.

• October 23, 2007: Targetted Release Date

[edit] References

[edit] Cited references and notes

[edit] External links

• TechBase - Information site for KDE, currently mostly developer information
• Plasma - Desktop Interface project for KDE 4
• Solid - Hardware project for KDE 4
• Phonon - Open Source Multimedia project for KDE 4
• Oxygen - Icon project for KDE 4
• Decibel - Project providing a service architecture to make chat and phone communication universally available to desktop applications
• Previewing KDE 4
• KDE 4 for Mac OS X
• How to setup KDE 4 on your Mac walk-through
• Linux Action Show interview with Aaron Seigo about KDE 4 part 1
• Part 2 of the Linux Action Show interview