KDE 4 Update
I haven’t posted anything about the last couple of versions of KDE. For those who don’t know, KDE 4 is on a considerably longer release schedule than previous versions. As a result, KDE 3.5 has had much more time to mature and develop. I am currently running 3.5.4, which is stable, fast, and very well integrated.
Taking a look at the release schedule, it would seem that there will be a “technical preview” in October of KDE 4. There are still no release dates for alphas, betas, or release candidates, but I think we will have a better idea of what’s happening after October. What I do know for sure is that this is not another Windows Vista (or a dreaded Duke Nukem Forever).
One of the main differences is that, unlike previous minor updates of KDE (i.e. 3.5.x), the 3.5 series continues to add new 4.0 features back into the 3.5 codestream. As a result, we are continually receiving new KDE 4 technologies as they are completed, instead of waiting for a final super-release.
For those looking forward to new eye candy and a smooth new interface:
KDE Appeal
September 10th, 2006 at 3:50 am
I use KDE 3.5.4 myself on both Fedora Core 5 and Ubuntu (Dapper). I agree that it’s fast, especially in loading time - they really did crack the “long KDE loading time” problem with 3.5.3 and have kept it up with the latest version.
I’m sort-of concerned about KDE 4, because they have delayed it for so long after Qt 4 was released. When Qt 3 came out (Oct 2001), it was just under six months before KDE 3 was out (April 2002). Qt 4 was released in summer 2005 and it’s now going into autumn 2006 and we’re still not at beta stage for KDE4 - in fact, it will not even use Qt 4.1. I sort of wonder if they should not have got the Qt 4 port done first, and thought later about adding loads of new frameworks and other features.