KDE News Archives

KDE's digiKam software for managing digital camera images is finally up to version 4.0, albeit in beta form. The digiKam 4.0 Beta brings new features and lands a lot of the GSoC 2013 changes.

The ownCloud software for running your own private cloud server for storing files is up to version 6. With ownCloud 6 comes some very exciting features for this open-source private cloud software.

KDevelop 4.6.0 was released on Monday as the latest version of the KDE-focused integrated development environment.

The KDE Calligra fork of KOffice is eyeing its 2.8 release and with it will come several new features. Calligra 2.8 final is expected in January but out today is the first beta.

The first release candidate to KDE's Plasma Media Center 1.2 is now available.

The latest KDE monthly stable release update is now available and corrects more than five dozen bugs in the open-source desktop software.

Since the advent of Project Neon it's been made very easy to try out KDE Frameworks 5 and Plasma 2 for Kubuntu Linux users, however, it's now even easier.

Krita is KDE's painting and image editing program that soon will see its v2.8 release. With this next Krita release there is new usage of OpenGL 3.x within the open-source program. Under the high quality filtering mode, OpenGL 3.0 is now used for delivering a superior painting/imaging experience.

For those early adopters of the Plasma 2 interface and KDE Frameworks 5, KWrite is the latest KDE application to be ported over to the next-generation KDE stack.

For those interested in ditching Compiz or other window managers in favor of KDE's KWin, it is actually possible to do so and use KWin on your favorite non-KDE desktop.

Martin Gräßlin, KDE's Kwin maintainer, has shared some new OpenGL implications due to changes made in the KWin 5 window manager due to relying on Qt5 with Qt Quick 2.

After dabbling with a KDE Plasma Active Tablet, Aaron Siego has announced today Make Play Live's first product as the Improv. The Improv is an open-source ARM development board that runs Mer OS and is compatible with Wayland.

The third beta of KDE 4.12 was released this week, but for those that missed the news only really are the 4.12 apps being improved in this next KDE desktop release.

While there's many Kdenlive fans out there for the KDE-focused open-source video editor, it seems new development efforts around the project have ceased.

Plasma Media Center, the KDE project to slowly take on the likes of XBMC and provide a nice user-interface for multimedia tasks atop the KDE experience, is up to version 1.2 beta. The 1.2 beta release of Plasma Media Center is packing a number of new features.

In readying KDE 4.12 for release next month, the second beta of the KDE 4.12 applications and platform packages are now available for early adopters and those testing this leading desktop environment.

Sebastian Kügler has provided an update concerning the state of running the Plasma Desktop running on top of Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5. A "tech preview" is still aimed for next month while a stable release for end-users is likely on the table for next summer.

The KDE KWin maintainer, Martin Gräßlin, has announced today that the KWin 5 code is in good shape, he's using it for day-to-day use, and will now begin accepting bug reports on the window manager that supports Qt5.

The updated applications and platform code for the KDE desktop environment is now in its 4.12 Beta state. However, as we already knew, KDE Plasma Workspaces is still in its 4.11 form until the premiere of Workspaces 2 and KDE Frameworks 5.

While we're growing very excited to see the KDE Plasma 2 tech preview release along with KDE Frameworks 5, which will hopefully be ready to try next month, for now there is KDE SC 4.11.3 to play with. KDE 4.11.3 was released on Tuesday and should take care of more than 120 bugs.

KDE's Sebastian Kügler has written how the Plasma 2 shell has become "somewhat usable" for early adopters and KDE enthusiasts for the technologies that will really be taking on the Linux desktop in 2014.

Following Mark Shuttleworth's critical comments about those opposed to Mir and his statements being challenged, multiple KDE developers in particular have been expressing their outrage.

For those using Intel graphics does toggling the "suspend desktop effects for fullscreen windows" KDE Kwin window manager option lead to better OpenGL Linux gaming performance? Here's some new benchmarks to answer that question for Intel Core i7 hardware.

Martin Gräßlin made "a dream come true" today with killing the KScreensaver support in the KDE Plasma Workspaces in a commit entitled "Die kscreensaver, die!" He also proceeded to remove the KDE Screensaver KCM control module and drop other code too, including KRandR.

While KDE 4.12 isn't even being released until December and many KDE developers are busy focusing their efforts on KDE Frameworks 5, there still are a number of KDE 4.12 features that have already been prepared for this next desktop release.

For those curious how the KDE libraries are going to be modularized by KDE Frameworks 5, there's a new article at KDE.org covering the changes.

For those curious about the state of KDE Frameworks 5 and the Plasma 2 desktop interface, KDE developer Sebastian Kügler has posted a video of the current state of this new KDE code that's expected to stabilize in 2014.

Plasma NM 0.9.3.0 is a new KDE Plasma applet for NetworkManager in managing network connections and is written in QML/C++. This new version replaces the older widget-based NetworkManagement applet for the KDE desktop.

Plasma Active, the version of the KDE interface for consumer electronics like tablets and powered by Mer Core, is now up to version four.

With the release of KDE Frameworks 5 expected in 2014 and other fundamental changes happening within the KDE development community, the release schedule/process is changing quite a lot.

KDE SC 4.11.1 has been released as the first monthly stable point release update to the KDE 4.11 Software Compilation.

The KDE Software Compilation 4.12 release schedule has now been finalized with a plan to put out the KDE 4.12 release on the 18th of December.

One week after the release of KDE Software Compilation 4.11, Plasma Media Center 1.1 has been officially released. With this updated KDE multimedia interface comes YouTube integration, improvements to ease of use, and much more.

Joining in on the KDE 4.11 release fun this week is the Amarok 2.8 multimedia player release.

For speeding up the development of KDE Frameworks 5, developers at Blue Systems are near exclusively focusing upon the development of these frameworks for the next three months.

KDE Software Compilation 4.11 has been released as its six-month update to the KDE desktop environment stack. With KDE 4.11 comes many exciting changes ahead of the KDE Frameworks 5 transition.

The first release candidate for KDE's Plasma Media Center 1.1 release is now available. Plasma Media Center supports viewing photographs, watching movies, and listening to music from one central KDE component.

For those into open-source office suites outside of LibreOffice/OpenOffice, Calligra 2.7 has been released. With the release of Calligra 2.7 comes many updates to all of its components.

Plasma Media Center 1.1, the second release to this KDE multimedia project providing a nice shell for multimedia needs, is now available in beta form. Plasma Media Center 1.1 is set to bring several new features to this KDE component for music and video playback.

Through the new Project Neon initiative, daily builds of the next-generation KDE stack -- KDE Frameworks 5 -- can be easily installed via Debian packages for Kubuntu.

The task manager for the KDE Plasma desktop is much-improved in the upcoming KDE 4.11 release with some parts of it being rewritten from scratch to address longstanding issues while other improvements are making it ready for QML.

As part of this year's Google Summer of Code, the KStars program is gaining support for OpenCL acceleration.

Martin Gräßlin took a break from his KWin Wayland enablement work to instead temporarily focus on getting the KDE window manager up and running with Qt5 and KDE Frameworks 5.

While KDE's KWin has experimental Wayland support in KDE 4.11, it won't be until about one year from now where the Wayland support for the KDE desktop is fully baked and offered in a release form. The wait should be worth it though with the exciting KDE Plasma Workspaces 2 and KDE Frameworks 5.

Thanks in part to a computer hardware retailer being closed, KDE 4.11 (and KDE 4.12) will offer improved system memory usage.

The first release candidate of the KDE 4.11 desktop is now available for widespread testing.

QML, the declarative language for designing UI-centric applications as part of Qt Quick, will also work for web-site design as part of a new KDE project.

The KDE project is currently evaluating a proposal to move from a six month release cycle for major releases to future releases coming every three months.

The second beta of the KDE 4.11 Software Compilation has been released.

Version 1.0 of the KScreen System Settings Module has been released for easy yet powerful RandR-based screen management from the KDE desktop.