What’s new in KDE 4.2 [kdepipa notes]

These are my notes from talk by Andrej Vernekar, originally titled Predstavitev KDE 4(.2).

The code name of KDE 4.2 is “answer” as reference to Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy.

KDE 4.2 can be answer to many things:

• critiques to 4.0 release
• bad things in KDE 3.5
• competition

Story time

What happens when you try to rewrite the thing from the scratch?

 

• authors / developers have rounded vision of the environment
• yet the community wants it’s seal of quality
• they can easily forget “release early, release often”

 

Vision for KDE 4.2

 

• Public perception of Linux Desktop is that it’s not innovative, it’s a clone, the desktop hasn’t changed much since 1984
• Vision: Plasma, completely new environment, that’s not only desktop file manager

 

Expectations were very high!

Dissapointment

 

• It was hard to port to QT4
• KDE 4.0 had to release, if only just for developers
• Plasma had to learn KDE 3 tricks first, vision comes later
• People don’t read warnings, especially if they’re small
• Flood of critiques

 

Critiques

• Not finished, unstable
• Missing core applications like Mail application
• Not the way it was done in KDE 3.5
• It’s not like .. (people don’t want to change their old habits)
• There’s a little X feature, that I can’t live without

Vision bears its fruits

• New and effective framework allow for release often, release early
• Surpass 8 years of development in 2 just years
• Lots of new developers due to bad press, new developers
• New interface attracts new users, even the ones that don’t usually use Linux Desktop

So what’s new?

• Newer, cleaner and more powerful interface
• Improved usability easpecially with new users in mind, making the whole thing easier to use
• Dolphin is now replaced by Konqueror
• Plasma: (Kicker + Desktop + Superkarmba)++     – desktop on steroids for non-KDE users
• New platforms: finally OS X and Windows support 😉
• Lots of eye candy

  

  Image via Wikipedia

Specific 4.2 release notes

 

• Most of the 3.5.x features are now back
• Polishing of Plasma, first real new things (e.g. PowerDevil, battery management)
• Better Kwin and lots of development in existing applications

 

Semantic desktop (buzzwords, beta feature)

 

• you can semantically tag things on your desktop
• Nepomuk – hidden feature that works, yet you know how to enable it

 

What’s missing?

 

• End users may want to wait for 4.2.1 with bugfixes
• K4B – burning tool is still missing
• KOffice 2 – beta 5 is out

 

Roadmap

• KDE 4.3 in six months
• QT 4.5 will be LGPL
• Amarok 2.1, new music player 🙂
• possibly semantic desktop, depends on feedback
• profiles for portables

Extra (Slovenian status)

 

• Slovenian language is supported at the release time, no 120 day delay
• Translation of 4.2.0 is as complete as 4.1.2
• Lots of quality control work

 

Related articles by Zemanta

• KDE4 Release Party Ljubljana (jurecuhalev.com)
• Hands-on: KDE 4.2 beta 1 brings impressive improvements (arstechnica.com)
• Dolphin Free File Management: A Better Option for KDE 4? (ostatic.com)
• Windows 7, the KDE 3.5 Wannabe? (internetling.com)