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KDE 4
Developer:	The KDE Team
Latest release:	4.0 RC1 / November 20, 2007
OS:	Unix-like
Genre:	Desktop environment
Website:	http://www.kde.org/

KDE 4 is the forthcoming series of releases of the K Desktop Environment software. The first version (4.0) of this series is scheduled for release on 11 January 2008.^[1]

The new series include updates to several of KDE’s core components, notably a port to Qt 4. These updates are expected to yield a 20–30 % performance increase over KDE 3.5.x.^[2] 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 have 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. One of the overall goals of KDE 4 is to be more easily portable to different operating systems.

These are the major changes planned to be introduced in KDE 4.

• To make KDE faster and more memory efficient by leveraging the greater speed and efficiency of Qt 4.x and increased efficiency in the KDE libraries themselves.
• Attempts to bring in a more standardized layout, including adhering to a set of human interface guidelines.
• The Oxygen project, a new default icon set and visual guidelines, icons will be made using SVG. KDE4 will also incorporate more community help with visuals. The oxygen team held a wallpaper contest with the best wallpapers to be included with KDE4. Some icon sets will also be included alongside the Oxygen icons like Nuvola.
• Plasma, the new desktop environment to combine the Kicker, KDesktop and SuperKaramba, aiming ultimately to make the desktop more customizable and useful.
• The Phonon multimedia interface, a framework designed to make KDE independent of any one media framework, ultimately making it easier for developers to incorporate simple media into programs, and leaving the choice of the media framework up to the user.
• Solid, an API for network and portable devices.
• Decibel, a communication framework aiming to integrate all communication protocols into the desktop, making it easier for the user to communicate, specifically if a user employs several different communication protocols.
• Kross, a scripting framework, allowing programs to easily incorporate scripting into their program, and allow plugins for programs to be written in several scripting languages.
• A new file manager, Dolphin, will be used as the default file browser instead of Konqueror in KDE, both will continually be developed separately.
• Sonnet, a spell checking program with automatic language detection.

Screenshot of KDE 4 Alpha 1.

On May 11, 2007, KDE 4.0 Alpha 1 was released marking the end of the addition of large features to the KDE base libraries and shifting the focus onto integrating the new technologies into applications and the basic desktop. Alpha 1 included new frameworks to build applications with, providing improved hardware and multimedia integration (through Solid and Phonon), new applications that focus on a smooth user experience (such as the file manager, Dolphin and Okular, the document viewer) and a new visual appearance through Oxygen icons.^[3] The next few months will be spent on bringing the desktop into shape, after two years of development leaving very little untouched.

On July 4, 2007, KDE 4.0 Alpha 2 was released.^[4] The release focused on integrating the Plasma desktop, improving functionality and stabilizing KDE.

Screenshot of Beta 1 showing the run dialogue, clock plasmoid and Dolphin file manager.

Screenshot of KDE 4 Beta 2.

Screenshot of Beta 4, showing the new Kickoff menu.

On 2007-08-02, KDE 4.0 Beta 1 was released.^[5] Major features included a pixmap cache – speeding up icon loading, KDE PIM improvements, improved KWin effects and configuration, better interaction between Konqueror and Dolphin and Metalink support added to KGet for improved downloads.

On [2007-09-06]], KDE 4.0 Beta 2 was released with improved BSD and Solaris support.^[6] The release included the addition of the Blitz graphic library – allowing for developers to use high performance graphical tricks like icon animation – and an overhaul of KRDC (K Remote Desktop Client) for Google’s Summer of Code. Plasma was also integrated with Amarok to provide Amarok’s central context view. In addition, several improvements made during the Summer of Code (color mixing, music notation, Flake architecture) were included in the release of the third alpha for KOffice 2.

On 2007-10-16 KDE 4 Beta 3 was released.^[7] The beta 3 release is focused on stabilizing and finishing the design of libraries for the release of the KDE Development Platform. The major improvements include improvements to Plasma with many new features and the addition of the applet browser. The KDE PIM software set will not be completely ready for the 4.0 release, but many applications have been ported with improvements. The new Akonadi PIM service is planned to be finished by the 4.1 release. The Educational software received many improvements in Marble, Parley (formerly known as KVoctrain) with bugfixes in others. A program called Step, an interactive physics simulator, was started and finished as part of the Google Summer of Code. Kopete will receive a straight port to be ready by 4.0 and there were also general Konqueror and KHTML improvements.

On 2007-10-30 KDE 4 Beta 4 was released.^[8] A list of release blockers has been compiled^[9], which is a list of issues that need to be resolved before KDE will start with the release candidate cycle for the desktop. The goals now are to focus on stabilization and fixing the release blockers. At the same time the first release candidate of the KDE 4.0 Development Platform was released. The development platform contains all the base libraries to develop KDE applications, including “high-level widget libraries, a network abstraction layer and various libraries for multimedia integration, hardware integration and transparent access to resources on the network.”^[10]

On November 20, 2007 KDE 4 RC1 was released.^[11] While the main site had no problems, the Plasma site^[12] went down due to the massive traffic.

• Regularly updated Live CD from a KDE developer
• Original KDE Release Schedule
• TechBase – Information site for KDE, currently mostly developer information
• Plasma – Desktop Interface project for KDE 4
• Solid – Hardware project for KDE 4
• Phonon – 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
• List of links to articles about KDE 4 (sorted chronologically)
• 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
• Linux Action Show interview with Aaron Seigo about KDE 4 part 2