July 24, 2008 at 11:35Waiting for KDE 4.1
A few days remain until the release of KDE 4.1 - one of the most anticipated OpenSource releases this summer. In this regard, we will try to recall what KDE 4.0.x gave us and what should appear in 4.1.
I will make a reservation right away that this is my first post on Habré. If something is wrong, then do not scold much.
So KDE 4.0 was released in early January this year. It was intended exclusively for developers, this was repeatedly mentioned on the official website of the project. The main architectural difference from the 3.x series is, of course, that it was written using the Qt4 library. This gave a significant increase in productivity and stability. Plasma has appeared - a new desktop organization tool that can display widgets. In the first releases (prior to 4.0.3), Plasma worked extremely unstable. Phonon took over all the work in multimedia files (later it was included in the OpenSource version of Qt). Dolphin became the standard file manager, but it didn’t get many Konqueror functionality (for example, integrating applications into the context menu). However, KDE 4.0 has become popular with regular users.
What awaits us with the advent of KDE 4.1?
Firstly, Dolphin functionality has been significantly increased. Now the same application integration has appeared in the context menu. Improved meta data support thanks to the Nepomuk project . Now, if you open files with one click of the mouse, then you will have no problems with selecting one file. When the file gets into focus, a nice “+” sign will appear in the upper corner of the icon. Finally, the much needed Up button appeared, which is unclear why it was absent in previous builds. The contents of the folders can now be viewed in the form of a tree, before that there was only a list and icons. Gwenview Image Viewer Has Undergone Big Changes
. They mainly relate to the appearance of the program. However, there are changes inside. So, for example, thanks to improved algorithms for working with JPEG, the download speed of large photos has significantly increased. Plasma changes are also not spared. The Kickoff menu has been heavily redesigned and has a new look. Changes have been made to the Run Command quick launch program. The window manager of Kwin has called a full set of effects and now is in no way inferior to Compiz.
Kontact reappeared, beloved by many KDE3 users. Let me remind you that Kontact is an excellent program for organizing personal information, combining a calendar, a TODO list and much more. The project has been completely rewritten in Qt4, new useful features have also been added: KTimeTracker and KJots (a tool for distributing time and creating notes)
It is unclear whether the Amarok 2 music player will be included in the release . Now the project is in Alpha 2 stage.
It is very pleasing that KDE lives and is actively developing. Moreover, the development is very correct. The developers pay great attention not only to the functionality, but also to the design of their brainchild (although probably one cannot exist without the other). All applications are decorated in one very nice style.
Let me remind you that KDE 4.1 will be available to Windows users. This will probably further increase the popularity of the project.
Thanks to all. After the release of the release I will try to write what we got in reality
UPD. Moved to K Desktop Enviroment
I will make a reservation right away that this is my first post on Habré. If something is wrong, then do not scold much.
So KDE 4.0 was released in early January this year. It was intended exclusively for developers, this was repeatedly mentioned on the official website of the project. The main architectural difference from the 3.x series is, of course, that it was written using the Qt4 library. This gave a significant increase in productivity and stability. Plasma has appeared - a new desktop organization tool that can display widgets. In the first releases (prior to 4.0.3), Plasma worked extremely unstable. Phonon took over all the work in multimedia files (later it was included in the OpenSource version of Qt). Dolphin became the standard file manager, but it didn’t get many Konqueror functionality (for example, integrating applications into the context menu). However, KDE 4.0 has become popular with regular users.
What awaits us with the advent of KDE 4.1?
Firstly, Dolphin functionality has been significantly increased. Now the same application integration has appeared in the context menu. Improved meta data support thanks to the Nepomuk project . Now, if you open files with one click of the mouse, then you will have no problems with selecting one file. When the file gets into focus, a nice “+” sign will appear in the upper corner of the icon. Finally, the much needed Up button appeared, which is unclear why it was absent in previous builds. The contents of the folders can now be viewed in the form of a tree, before that there was only a list and icons. Gwenview Image Viewer Has Undergone Big Changes
. They mainly relate to the appearance of the program. However, there are changes inside. So, for example, thanks to improved algorithms for working with JPEG, the download speed of large photos has significantly increased. Plasma changes are also not spared. The Kickoff menu has been heavily redesigned and has a new look. Changes have been made to the Run Command quick launch program. The window manager of Kwin has called a full set of effects and now is in no way inferior to Compiz.
Kontact reappeared, beloved by many KDE3 users. Let me remind you that Kontact is an excellent program for organizing personal information, combining a calendar, a TODO list and much more. The project has been completely rewritten in Qt4, new useful features have also been added: KTimeTracker and KJots (a tool for distributing time and creating notes)
It is unclear whether the Amarok 2 music player will be included in the release . Now the project is in Alpha 2 stage.
It is very pleasing that KDE lives and is actively developing. Moreover, the development is very correct. The developers pay great attention not only to the functionality, but also to the design of their brainchild (although probably one cannot exist without the other). All applications are decorated in one very nice style.
Let me remind you that KDE 4.1 will be available to Windows users. This will probably further increase the popularity of the project.
Thanks to all. After the release of the release I will try to write what we got in reality
UPD. Moved to K Desktop Enviroment