First Alpha Release of KDE 4.0

[Third Eye]

The first alpha release of the most awaited project of this year, KDE 4.0, was released last night by the hard-working people behind the KDE project: "The KDE Community is happy to announce the immediate availability of the first alpha release of the KDE Desktop Environment, version 4.0. This release is a basis for the integration of powerful new technologies that will be included in KDE 4."

Highlights of this first alpha release include:

• A new visual appearance through Oxygen;
• New frameworks to build applications with, providing vastly improved hardware and multimedia integration (through Solid and Phonon), spelling and grammar checking, to name just a few;
• New applications that focus on a smooth user experience, such as Dolphin, the file manager, and Okular, the document viewer;
The KDE 4.0 schedule:

1 April 2007 - Subsystem freeze
15 Apr 2007 - kdelibs Hackathon week
1 May 2007 - Alpha release + kdelibs soft API freeze
8 May 2007 - Usability and Accessibility review
1 June 2007 - Feature freeze
25 June 2007 until 24 September 2007 - Beta cycle, full kdelibs API freeze
25 September 2007 until 22 October 2007 - Release Candidate cycle
23 October 2007 - KDE 4.0 released

They have also set up a future plan page intended to indicate if features are completed, in progress or only as a notion project, and a module status page which lists the overall status of the different KDE main modules.

KDE is a powerful Free Software graphical desktop environment for Linux and Unix workstations. It combines ease of use, contemporary functionality and outstanding graphical design with the technological superiority of the Unix operating system. KDE is a network transparent contemporary desktop environment for UNIX workstations. KDE seeks to fill the need for an easy to use desktop for Unix workstations, similar to the desktop environments found under the Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows.

For more details on this alpha release, please visit the KDE 4.0 Alpha 1 official webpage.

Until the final release of KDE 4.0 will be available in late October, you can download this first alpha version of KDE Four now from Softpedia and you can also download the KDE LiveCD version 0.1.0 based on this first alpha release, from Sopftpedia.

 

[kaustav_geek]

Bad font.... So big fonts are considered rude...

 

[phreak0ut]

Why do you always have problems with fonts?? He's made it bold for the announcement. FYI, capital, large fonts means rude and shouting.

 

[kaustav_geek]

Why do you always have problems with fonts?? He's made it bold for the announcement. FYI, capital, large fonts means rude and shouting

Err... Pardon me..... Large fonts, capital or not... are never good on the eyes... I might be dead wrong... BTW ... the font size has been reduced by Tech Genius already.....

 

[vish786]

@kaustav_geek

almost in all thread u keep tellin the same thing.... " bad fonts " & "large size "

instead of topic u startin talkin about the fonts..... ur sort of font freak or get ur eyes checked

 

[kaustav_geek]

almost in all thread u keep tellin the same thing.... " bad fonts " & "large size "

instead of topic u startin talkin about the fonts..... ur sort of font freak or get ur eyes checked

IJ That CHO ?? Heh! I have posted that message in two threads so far..This one and the one in Fight Club.. And indeed they have/had bad font selection.... My eyes are fine.... Wanna check em yourself ?

The text font in this thread has already been changed... so you can't notice the change anymore..... I'm not a font freak per say...

 

[gxsaurav]

hey, screenshots anyone? whats new

 

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

yeah , me too would like to see what's up with v4

 

[Third Eye]

hey, screenshots anyone? whats new

*www.kde.org/announcements/visualguide-4.0-alpha1.php

 

[kaustav_geek]

I feel KDE4's biggest improvement is the inclusion of Dolphin as a separate File Manager... Konqueror was really messy and slow...

 

[eddie]

... Konqueror was really messy and slow...

You are being sarcastic...right? Konqueror...slow?

 

[praka123]

I'd be trying Kde4 when it is ready.already ran kde4 snapshot live cd.found dolphin file manager as good.but for me, somewhere dolphin looks similar to Nautilus of GNOME.

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ yeah, imho konqueror is the best file manager in comparison to any FM on any OS!!

the font rendering looks nice.. but as prakash said it has a gnomish overall look!

 

[eddie]

I'd be trying Kde4 when it is ready.already ran kde4 snapshot live cd.found dolphin file manager as good.but for me, somewhere dolphin looks similar to Nautilus of GNOME.

You don't like that?
I thought you used GNOME and keeping in mind that Dolphin deliberately uses an interface similar to Nautilus...you should have loved it.

 

[praka123]

^^ I said I liked Dolphin file manager baba!

 

[eddie]

I thought that "but" meant something was wrong with it