“The long-awaited KDE 4.0.0 was released last week as scheduled. Even though the expectations – following a couple of less than convincing release candidates – weren’t very high and the consensus was that the first release of KDE 4 would be more of a ‘technology preview’ than a usable desktop environment for general deployment, it’s hard not to see the enormous amount of good work that has gone into the new code. As Kubuntu’s Jonathan Riddell put it, KDE 4 is the start of something amazing and this is possibly the best definition of the current release – it’s here, it’s available, but it’s nowhere near ready for the prime time. It’s a decent start, though. Unsurprisingly, the reaction of distributions was a mixed bag. Below is a summary of information about the availability of KDE 4.0.0 in various distributions.”
I think it’s been long enough now that a lot of people have learned what they don’t like about 4.0, but haven’t had a chance to dig into the new api yet to do something about it. As much as I’ve been burned out on coding during the weekends, even I’m tempted to start hacking away.
Just to add a couple of points, the hope right now is that they will be able to feature KDE 4.1 for 11.0, though neither schedule has been finalized yet.
It’s also worth pointing out that as they did during the KDE4 development process, openSUSE will soon be maintaining packages not just for KDE4 stable, but also for svn snapshots built on a bi-weekly basis. This will make it easier for those that want to try and follow the project as developments are pushed into svn, without the hassle of svn downloads and compilation. In fact, the current KDE 4.0 packages apparently contain patches from svn after 4.0.0 was tagged.
With all the complaining about the recent release of 4.0.0, it is worth pointing out that the user experience can be greatly influenced by the amount of work the distro developers put into their packaging of it.
Just my 2c…
openSUSE’s schedule has been finalized. It will be released in June. That’s probably too soon for KDE 4.1, because distributions usually want a few weeks of test period on their own before packages get included in the distribution.
I humbly stand corrected, I misinterpreted one of the emails and thought the roadmap dates were proposed but not finalized.
Not in this case, openSUSE isn’t “most distributions” when it comes to KDE
KDE 4.x is being packaged and tested parallel to factory. Rolling packages will be available built from KDE svn against the rolling packages from factory (as well as 10.2/10.3) through the development cycle.
Of course, if something horribly goes wrong with KDE 4.1 during the development, then they will probably have to pull back. But even if openSUSE 11.0 is forced to release with KDE 4.0.x, it will very likely be heavily patched with whatever functionality from 4.1 the devs feel they can port safely. It wouldn’t be the first time they do this, every version of openSUSE KDE contains a combination of custom openSUSE-specific patches as well as patches from kde.org when it makes sense.
They even included KDE4 packages built from beta-source as part of 10.3, though mostly the games, which were among the first applications successfully ported over and stabilized against the new framework, and they were intended to be run on a KDE3 desktop.
The next developer meeting is coming up at the end of the month, and with the dust dying down at that point from the KDE 4.0 launch and the release party in Googletown, hopefully there will be a clearer timeline to work against for KDE integration.
I have to admit that I don’t know Fedora well, but I think that the article’s author made a mistake. Renaming KDE 3 packages is no sign for changed default, but rather a reasonable way to avoid confusion. At least (K)Ubuntu or openSUSE Factory does the same (I’m not sure which of these two, because I use both and currently not sitting in front of either).
No, the plan for awhile now has been to have KDE4 be the default KDE in Fedora 9.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeatureKDE4
I have not checked the mailing list or anything. But I would be most surprised if KDE 4.0 were *not* the default in F9. Fedora’s reason for being is to have the most cutting edge everything. And being a Gnome distro, a rough edged KDE offering in F9 is not a show stopper.
Unless something really bad happens (and I doubt it), KDE4 will be the default KDE DE version in the F9.
It is already the default in the current rawhide. (Fedora-current)
– Gilboa
Hello!
I can’t afford to download all the necessary dev-tools atm, but I still want to play around a little bit with KDE 4.0.
So is there a distribution on a CD/DVD (I could download that at another place) that contains all necessary developement files to compile kde4 programs, plasmoids etc.?
I tried the openSuses 10.3 live Cd and the kubuntu one allready.
Thanks in advance.
Edited 2008-01-16 23:59 UTC
Just for reference the Debian KDE 4 portal, and KDE Team site is here:
http://pkg-kde.alioth.debian.org/kde4.html
There’s FAQs and other goodies there. Also, there is a bit of general Debian KDE chatter here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/
So far the Debain KDE packages seem quite good, I’m running KDE 4.0.0 from ‘experimental’– With KDEPim from 3.5, and the other big 3rd party apps from KDE 3. Everything seems to be living happily together.
i have to say as a big suse fan, that the june schedule for the release of 11.0 is daft given the desire in the community to see a ‘real’ KDE4 (aka KDE 4.1) as a default desktop in suse before mid 2009.
Regards
According to the devs, it’s a technology preview for early adopters. The *real* release will be released with the advent of KDE 4.1. So in the end it’s massive hype and some distros (usus with Linux) which sell the hype to their greedy users. At the moment I see open source on the path of closed-source software: low quality, massive hype, fault tolerance, false promises.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Why should we believe that 4.1 will be the real deal?
Why should you not find out on your own?
* KDE will cost how much?
* There ist time involved? Then wait for the first reviews of early adopters.
* And in case you will not be satisfied: KDE3 will be around until KDE4 matures fully.
You know, there definitely are some differences between Microsoft and KDE. Most notably the one that KDE owes you only as much as you are willing to give to KDE, and for the majority of people on this planet that is – exactly nothing.
I find it ironic that everything that is being said about KDE4 could be said about Windows Vista since it is more Explorer-like by default then anything else. In general terms of course.
(It’s buggy, unfinished, beta quality, never should have released, sticking with previous version, it’s late, wait for the next update, etc.)
Poor engineering, Poor leadership, Poor management, Poor quality control are all things that contribute to the failure of a product. FOSS may not be a business, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn a couple of things from the business sector.
a lot of the frameworks and backends that form the integrated joy of KDE4 will be finalised and linked in to the respective apps that make use of them.
i have a great deal of confidence speaking personally that KDE 4.1 will be what we have all been waiting for.