News and announcements
KDE Ships August Updates to Plasma Workspaces, Applications and Platform (KDE SC 4.8.5)
Written for KDE SC by yurikoles on 2012-08-08
Today KDE released updates for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development
Platform.
These updates are the fifth in a series of monthly stabilization updates to
the 4.8 series. 4.8.5 updates bring many bugfixes and translation updates on
top of the latest edition in the 4.8 series and are recommended updates for
everyone running 4.8.4 or earlier versions. As the release only contains
bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for
everyone. KDE’s software is already translated into more than 55 languages,
with more to come.
Significant bugfixes include improvements to the Kontact Suite, bugfixes in
Dolphin and many more corrections and performance improvements all over the
place.
The changelog and Bugzilla list more, but not all improvements since 4.8.4.
Note that these changelogs are incomplete. For a complete list of changes that
went into 4.8.5, you can browse the Subversion and Git logs. 4.8.5 also ships
a more complete set of translations for many of the 55+ supported languages.
To download source code or packages to install go to the 4.8.5 Info Page. If
you would like to find out more about the KDE Workspaces and Applications 4.8,
please refer to the 4.8 release notes and its earlier versions.
Updated . Read more
KDE Release 4.9 – in memory of Claire Lotion
Written for KDE SC by yurikoles on 2012-08-02
KDE is delighted to announce its latest set of releases, providing
major updates to KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications, and the KDE
Platform. Version 4.9 provides many new features, along with improved
stability and performance.
This release is dedicated to the memory of KDE contributor Claire
Lotion. Claire's vibrant personality and enthusiasm were an
inspiration to many in our community, and her pioneering work on the
format, scope and frequency of our developer meetings changed the way
we go about implementing our mission today. Through these and other
activities she left a notable mark on the software we are able to
release to you today, and we are grateful for and humbled by her efforts.
The KDE Quality Team was set up earlier this year with a goal to
improve the general levels of quality and stability in KDE software.
Special attention was given to identifying and fixing regressions from
previous releases. This was a top priority because it ensures
improvement with each release.
The Team also set up a more rigorous testing process for releases
starting with beta versions. New testing volunteers received training;
and several testing intensive days were held. Rather than traditional
exploratory testing, testers were assigned to focus on specific areas
that had changed since previous releases. For several critical
components, full testing checklists were developed and used. The team
found many important issues early and worked with developers to make
sure they were fixed. The Team itself reported over 160 bugs with the
beta and RC releases, many of which have now been fixed. Other beta
and RC users added considerably to the number of bugs reported. These
efforts are important because they allow developers to concentrate on
fixing issues.
As a result of the efforts of the KDE Quality Team, the 4.9 Releases
are the best ever.
One particular bugfix deserves special attention. An Okular bug
reported in 2007 had gotten nearly 1100 votes; it was important to
many users. They complained about making annotations and not being
able to save or print them. With the assistance of many commenters and
people on the Okular IRC channel, Fabio D’Urso implemented a solution
that allows Okular PDF document annotations to be saved and printed.
The fix required some work on KDE libraries and attention to overall
design to ensure that non-PDF documents worked right. This was Fabio’s
first KDE dev experience, which came about when he encountered the
problem and decided to do something about it.
KDE Announces 4.9 RC2
Written for KDE SC by yurikoles on 2012-07-12
July 11, 2012. Today KDE released the second release candidate for its renewed
Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. With API, dependency and
feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and
further polishing new and old functionality. Highlights of 4.9 will include:
* Qt Quick in Plasma Workspaces -- Qt Quick is continuing to make its way
into the Plasma Workspaces, the Qt Quick Plasma Components, which have been
introduced with 4.8, mature further. Additional integration of various KDE
APIs was added through new modules. More parts of Plasma Desktop have been
ported to QML. While preserving their functionality, the Qt Quick replacements
of common plasmoids are visually more attractive, easier to enhance and extend
and behave better on touchscreens.
* The Dolphin file manager has improved its display and sorting and
searching based on metadata. Files can now be renamed inline, giving a
smoother user experience.
* Deeper integration of Activities for files, windows and other resources:
Users can now more easily associate files and windows with an Activity, and
enjoy a more properly organized workspace. Folderview can now show files
related to an Activity, making it easier to organize files into meaningful
contexts.
* Many performance improvements and bugfixes improve the overall user
experience, making the KDE Applications and Workspaces more productive and fun
to use than ever before.
More improvements can be found in the 4.9 Feature Plan. As with any large
number of changes, we need to give 4.9 a good testing in order to maintain and
improve the quality and our user's user experience when they get the update
KDE Announces 4.9 Release Candidate 1
Written for KDE SC by yurikoles on 2012-06-27
Today KDE released the first release candidate for its renewed Workspaces,
Applications, and Development Platform. With API, dependency and feature
freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further
polishing new and old functionality. Highlights of 4.9 include:
* Qt Quick in Plasma Workspaces -- Qt Quick is continuing to make its way into
the Plasma Workspaces, the Qt Quick Plasma Components, which have been
introduced with 4.8, mature further. Additional integration of various KDE
APIs was added through new modules. More parts of Plasma Desktop have been
ported to QML. While preserving their functionality, the Qt Quick
replacements of common plasmoids are visually more attractive, easier to
enhance and extend and behave better on touchscreens.
* The Dolphin file manager has improved its display and sorting and searching
based on metadata. Files can now be renamed inline, giving a smoother user
experience.
* Deeper integration of Activities for files, windows and other resources:
Users can now more easily associate files and windows with an Activity, and
enjoy a more properly organized workspace. Folderview can now show files
related to an Activity, making it easier to organize files into meaningful
contexts.
* Many performance improvements and bugfixes improve the overall user
experience, making the KDE Applications and Workspaces more productive and
fun to use than ever before.
More improvements can be found in the 4.9 Feature Plan. As with any large
number of changes, we need to give 4.9 a good testing in order to maintain and
improve the quality and our user's user experience when they get the update.
KDE Announces 4.9 Beta2
Written for KDE SC by yurikoles on 2012-06-13
Today KDE released the second beta for its renewed Workspaces, Applications,
and Development
Platform. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's
focus is now on fixing
bugs and further polishing new and old functionality. Highlights of 4.9 will
include, but are not limited to:
* Qt Quick in Plasma Workspaces -- Qt Quick is continuing to make its way into
the Plasma Workspaces, the Qt Quick Plasma Components, which have been
introduced with 4.8, mature further. Additional integration of various KDE
APIs was added through new modules. More parts of Plasma Desktop have been
ported to QML. While preserving their functionality, the Qt Quick
replacements of common plasmoids are visually more attractive, easier to
enhance and extend and behave better on touchscreens.
* The Dolphin file manager has improved its display and sorting and searching
based on metadata. Files can now be renamed inline, giving a smoother user
experience.
* Deeper integration of Activities for files, windows and other resources:
Users can now more easily associate files and windows with an Activity, and
enjoy a more properly organized workspace. Folderview can now show files
related to an Activity, making it easier to organize files into meaningful
contexts.
* Many performance improvements and bugfixes improve the overall user
experience, making the KDE Applications and Workspaces more productive and
fun to use than ever before.
More improvements can be found in the 4.9 Feature Plan. As with any large
number of changes, we need to give 4.9 a good testing in order to maintain and
improve the quality and our user's user experience when they get the update.
